Blessing of the Immortals
by Semajvii
Summary: The mysterious Blessing of the Immortals. A blessing first bestowed upon the primordials by Chaos, the creator of the Universe. The blessing forced immortals to mature physically and mentally in days. For some reason Percy Jackson has received a small form of the blessing. It forces him to mature many times faster then normal. With this power he pledges to protect his loved ones.
1. The Blessing

**A/N: Second fic ever and first Jackson fic, so… yeah, probably not very good to be honest. Either way, I like my concept and hope you do to. Percy's powers are a bit different in this fic, but not entirely unique from canon. I plan to give him more control over earthquakes than he has shown in the books and control of other liquids and control of the temperature of liquids. I don't have complete understanding of the extent of his powers in canon so I don't really know how much they are going to change.**

 **[Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan. I don't own Percy Jackson or any other connected series.]**

 **CHAPTER 1: The Blessing**

 **[Sally's POV]**

I awoke with a startle. Hearing the cry of a newborn waking me quickly, and feeling the soft shaking of the apartment. Even after a few weeks I still have not gotten used to hearing his cries and they wreck my nerves every time I hear them. I slid off the side of my bed and approached its foot only to trip on something I couldn't see in the dark and catch myself on the cradle found at the end of my bed. I stood up and stared into the cradle not being able to fight the slight frown that found its way to my face. As much as a I love my little Percy, he's a constant reminder of losing his father not so long ago; even if I understand why he had to leave. However, my frown quickly vanished as I scooped up my child and cooed to him quietly, slightly rocking him trying to calm him down.

As his crying slowed, the apartment stopped shaking, and he quieted in my arms, a smile found its way to my lips. He looked up at me as I stared into his beautiful sea green eyes before he yawned adorably and slowly closed his eyes falling asleep in my arms for the second time that night, thoughts of his father fading away as I looked at his sleeping face.

I held him for a while, afraid to put him down and accidentally wake him. As I stared down at him I thought of the strange things that have been happening since we've come home from that strange place his father took me to give birth.

It started when we first got home. After holding him for a few hours, feeding him when he needed, changing him as well, I lied him down in his crib so I could use the restroom. When I came back into the room a few minutes later I found him sitting up in his crib. I was shocked because all the books I read said he shouldn't be able to sit up on his own until he was at least four months old, but here he was sitting by himself trying to play with his cute, onesie-covered feet at barely more than a week old.

For the rest of the day I watched over my child with him in my arms or in his crib. Every time I lied him down he would shortly thereafter sit up and play with his fingers and feet again. Seeing as he could sit up on his own, even though I thought it strange, I decided to give him a bath. I brought him into the small bathroom in our apartment and held him in my arms as I filled the tub with about an inch or two of slightly warm water with some bubbles from the infant shampoo I put in first. After that I stripped him down and delicately put him in the water.

The moment I placed him in the water his slightly tired expression, from being up relatively late for an infant, suddenly turned energetic and playful. He sat in the water splashing and giggling to himself and I couldn't help but smile. The next instant my smile changed into a look of shock as I watched tendrils of water pull out of the tub and move around him as he giggled joyfully.

I didn't really know what to do, but I found myself slowly reaching forward and touching one of the tendrils and was shocked once again to see some of the water move up my hand before pooling on a slight scrape I received earlier that day from falling. It glowed for a second and the slight pain I felt from the wound slowly faded away. I was speechless as I watched the water fall off my hand, leaving it completely healed, into the tub along with the tendrils with one tendril unplugging the tub and the water flowing down the drain. I was speechless once again when I looked to my son to find him bone dry and waiting to be taken from the tub.

Similar things happened throughout the following days. He would love baths and playing with his tendrils. We went out in the rain once and when we came back in we were both completely dry. One of the weirder things that happened was that whenever he cried the room would seem to shake a bit. After a while of sitting in my chair thinking about my beloved son, I slowly fell asleep not to wake until the next morning.

 **-LINE CUT-**

I woke up the next morning to the sound of soft gurgling in my arms. I groggily looked down and saw my son looking up at me with a happy smile on his face. I smiled back as I slowly got up from the chair I fell asleep in. I ran through my morning routine getting both myself and my son ready for the day before sitting down in the living room. Today was my first day back to work, I love my Percy but I don't like sitting idle. According to the discreet message his father sent me, someone that knows about all this weird stuff was coming to help watch Percy while I go to work. The message also told me that she was Percy's aunt, wasn't technically supposed to interact with Percy, and I shouldn't tell Percy or anyone about her… ever. I was content with that as long as my beautiful son was safe.

After a few minutes, I heard a knock at the door. Standing up, I first put Percy down in his cradle I brought into the living room earlier that day, then approached the door. Opening it I barely held back a gasp as I came face to face with one of the most beautiful women I've seen in my life, and the term goddess immediately came to mind. She was sweet-looking and beautiful in an unpretentious way, with an honest smile, warm brown eyes, and black hair framing her face in ringlets. She wore a modest dress and had no make-up on, but she didn't need it with her stunning natural beauty. I stood there gaping for a few seconds until I noticed the amused look on her face.

"Um- sorry about that." I said with a nervous chuckle.

She gave a soft smile and said in a beautiful voice, "I understand. It is not often a mortal such as yourself meets a goddess. It is very all right."

I was a tad shocked at the casual drop of the term goddess, until I remembered who her brother is and decided not to bring it up.

"Th-thank you, uhh…"

"Hestia," the now named goddess said.

"Hestia, right," I said then realized we were still standing in the hall so I gestured for her to enter and said, "Oh sorry about that, please come in."

She walked past me and I closed the door watching her walk up to the cradle and stand over it looking at my Percy. I approached the cradle standing by her side and for a moment nothing was said as we watched the innocent child playing with his toes.

Hestia broke the silence a few minutes later by saying, "I believe you must be getting to work. You need not worry about young Perseus. I used to be one of the Olympians and am still considered one of the strongest goddesses and while I don't like violence I am not averse to its use in order to protect those that need it."

Knowing that eased my mind a great deal. Knowing your child is under the protection of one of the strongest gods would help ease anyone.

"It is very reassuring to hear that. I put him in your hands for now, but before I leave I think I should warn you that Percy is a little different than other children as I believe you know. The strangest of things happen around him and I don't really know how to explain them." I looked over at her and for a second, I thought I saw worry in her eyes, but dismissed the thought as my imagination.

"Might I ask what sort of…strange…things happen to Perseus?" she asked.

"Well, for one, the house seems to shake slightly when he cries, he's only a few weeks old and he can already sit up on his own, earlier today it looked like he was trying to crawl, and whenever he takes a bath the water lifts from the tub and makes, sort of… tendrils… that he likes to play with. Oh, he also seems really fascinated with the horse toy I got him, if that means anything."

"Amazing. Only a few weeks old and already such power. He might be the strongest demigod I've ever seen at this age," Hestia said quietly. She turned to me with a soft smile and said, "Your child will be safe with me, now I believe you must be getting to work. You wouldn't want to be late on your first day back."

"Thank you so much for watching him. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't been able to," I said before laying a soft kiss atop Percy's head then turning and approaching the door, stopping to pick up my bag before opening the door and shouting over my shoulder as I walked out, "I'll be home at about four. Thank you again," and leaving the house, content in the belief my son would be safe.

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **[Percy's POV]**

I sat there playing with the wiggling-things (I believe the warm lady called them toes one time) as I watched the warm lady pass through the weird hole in the wall and yell something I couldn't hear. I don't know where she was going, but I do know I hoped she would come back soon. She is my most favorite person of the ones I have met so far and her not being here makes me not happy. I do not like not happy at all. I decided to make my feelings known by dropping the wiggling things and crying. It IS the only thing I could do beside the happy noises.

As I cried I felt the world shake like it normally does when I cry, before I suddenly felt something grab me under my dangling-things[arms] and pick me up. I continued to cry, missing the warm lady, until I felt something almost just like the warm lady, but still different. I liked that feeling very much so I calmed down enough to open my see-things[eyes].

What I saw was amazing. There was a lady who looked just as pretty as the warm lady, maybe even more. I looked at her for a moment before reaching out and holding her nose. I saw her do the happy thing[smile] so I did the very happy thing[giggle]. I liked the new lady (I will call her the pretty lady) very much. The pretty lady looked at me for a little bit before saying something.

"Hello, young Perseus," she said quietly.

I stared at her before saying, "Hello pretty lady." Well that's what I _tried_ to say, but it came out as weird noises no one could understand.

"It is very nice to meet you. Your father asked me to watch you for a while so he can work on what to do about our siblings if they find out," she did the not happy thing[frowned] then said, "I am worried for you young Perseus. I cannot watch you for long without the others knowing, and even worse you might have to be moved to the camp much sooner than we thought, especially if what your mother said was true," she stopped then did the happy thing and said, "Now then, let's see if we can test some of your powers. Maybe then we can decide when we must send you to camp. Hopefully it isn't any time soon." With that she walked around the house a bit.

As we walked I thought about what she said. I did not understand all the words she said. I don't know what a father is. I don't know who ' _the others'_ are and I don't know what the camp she talked about is. I did know that something was wrong with whatever the camp was.

The pretty lady brought me into the bathroom and filled the tub with water. I did the very happy thing again and tried to get in the tub. The pretty lady held me back for a little before putting me in the tub. When she put me in the tub I felt very good. I like the water very much. I started doing the very happy thing very loud. As I patted the water I decided to show the pretty thing the wiggly water things.

I looked at the water and asked it to move in my head. I felt the weird feeling in my tummy and then the water did what I asked and the wiggly things came out of the water and started moving around me. I did the very happy thing louder and then looked at the pretty lady. She had a weird[surprised] look on her face, like when I showed the warm lady the wiggly things. I asked the wiggly things to move over to the pretty lady and when they got by her she reached out and touched it. I could feel her through the water and she was very warm like the warm lady. I liked it very much.

She pulled her hand back then looked at me and did the happy thing.

"That was very impressive young Perseus. Very, impressive indeed."

I got done with the bath and asked the wiggly things to go away. After taking all the water off me and going down the hole the last wiggly thing waved at me and the pretty lady before going down the drain completely. I looked at the pretty lady and did the happy thing while reaching out to be picked up.

She reached down and picked me up before bringing me to the living room. She placed me down on the floor with some toys before sitting on the couch to watch me. I played with the toys for a while, but they weren't very fun. I wanted to play with the pretty lady. I flopped on my tummy then pushed up with my dangly things and tried to move towards the pretty lady.

It wasn't very easy, and I fell down a few times, but I made it to the pretty lady's walk things[legs] and touched her stomp things[feet]. She gave me a weird look before reaching down and picking me up. She looked me in the see-things and I looked at hers.

For the first time, I noticed her see-things were not like mine or the warm ladies. They were glowing like the sun or that trash can the warm lady said was on fire. It was a nice glow, a warm glow, that made me want to fall asleep, but I wanted to play so I tried not to.

"Look at you," she said, "I thought you might have gotten the blessing, but I guess this proves it."

"What?" I tried asking slowly and it came out as weird noises that barely resembled words, but she seemed to know what I tried to say and got a weird look on her face again.

"Are you trying to talk?" she asked, "Can you understand me?"

"Yes," I tried to say with a nod of my head.

She stared at me for a few seconds before saying quietly, "Amazing. I've never seen they blessing in a mortal before."

"Bless-ing," I said slowly trying to understand. It came out weird again, but it was getting closer to right.

"Yes, blessing. It is something a higher being can give a lower being, that gives them powers. For example," She closed her eyes and seemed to glow a little. A little later I glowed as well for a little before it stopped. "I just gave you a minor blessing. I promised I would protect you, and this is the most I can do without the others knowing. My blessing protects you against fire."

"Oth-ers?" I asked, it started sounding like actual words now.

"The other gods, Perseus."

I just stared at her in confusion, which she noticed with a soft chuckle.

"You will learn in time, Perseus."

"Oth-er bless-ing?" I asked.

"Yes. You see, like I said earlier blessing are given to lesser beings by higher beings. The gods, titans, and even the primordials all have a blessing from the creator, Chaos. This blessing allows us to age within days of birth and reach maturity in no later than a week. It seems a small part of the blessing has been given to you from your father. It is miniscule compared to the gods, but it is there. From what I can see, you're physically and mentally aging much faster than other kids your age. You will mentally be at least a couple years ahead of your age in a few days. Even further in a few weeks. You'll reach mental maturity by the time you're sixteen. Physically, your accelerated growth should slow in two or three weeks, but you'll be at least a year ahead of your age before it's stops completely. It also seems to be rapidly advancing your demigod powers, but not your scent strangely, which is a very good thing. That combined with the fact that the Blessing of the Immortals acts as a natural deterrent for monsters, you won't have to go to camp until you're at least twelve."

"Wow…" I didn't understand everything she said, but I understood enough to tell it's amazing.

"Indeed. Now then, as your aunt I feel it is my duty to teach you. We'll start with speaking and see where we can go from there."

And that's what we did. For the pretty lady's (or Aunt Hestia's, as I learned) first visit we spent our time talking. At first, we said nothing of importance as I was learning how to form the sounds and says the words and the basics of speaking. As time passed, and I learned to communicate better, I started asking questions.

"Aunt Hestia, what is the camp you keep talking about, and who are " _the others_ " you mentioned?" I asked.

She sighed slightly, seemingly expecting this question, before saying, "' _The others',_ young Perseus, are your family. You are not supposed to know because knowledge of them increases your scent, but the Blessing of Immortals should cause this to wane. My brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, and your uncles, aunts, father, and cousins. Each one is a god or goddess and they cannot learn about you."

I was confused and didn't understand why my family couldn't know about me, so I asked her.

"Perseus, years ago your father and uncles, came together and agreed that they would have no more mortal children. You were not supposed to be born, but your father and mother loved each other too much, which lead to you."

I was shocked, "I'm not supposed to be alive." I said quietly. "That's why my father left, isn't it? He doesn't want me." I started crying and the building shook slightly, but a warm embrace calmed be slightly and the room stopped shaking. I looked up into Aunt Hestia's face to see worry for me.

As she held me she said quietly, "I may not know everything, young Perseus, but I do know one thing. Your mother and father love you more than life itself. Your father looked so very unhappy when he came to me for help, leaving you was one of the hardest things he's done in his immortal life."

We sat silently for a few seconds before I gathered myself, "Thank you, Aunt Hestia," I said as I embraced my aunt as best I could with my small arms.

"Think nothing of it," I climbed out of her arms and sat opposite of her again.

"Would you tell me who my family is?" I asked excited to know more about my relatives.

"Okay, I guess I'll start at the beginning. It all started with Chaos…"

 **-LINE CUT-**

We talked for hours on end. I learned of how the creator made the primordials, who in turn birthed the titans, and the giants, and the hundred handed ones, and so many others. Then I learned how the king of the titans, Kronos, birthed the gods. I was disgusted that I was related to someone who would eat his children to keep power, but I cheered when I learned Zeus saved my family then, with their help, stopped the titans. She also told me how they received their domains.

Then she talked about how the other gods where born. I was not very happy with Zeus when she told me the many stories of his affairs with other women, and I felt sorry for Hera, but I didn't hold any of that over the children born. When I learned of Hera throwing Hephaestus of Olympus I was mad, but there was nothing I could really do to change that. The story of Athena was gross and reminded me of Kronos eating his kids. I learned of how all the gods were born and some were fun to learn about, others were kind of gross. After that she told me stories of some of the greatest demigods to live, Heracles, Jason, Perseus (who was my favorite for some reason) and many others. Then she explained how the gods came to America which I thought was very interesting, and finally she told me about me. She told me about my parents, how they met, about their love, the day I was born. I absorbed that stuff the most. She also told me about the ancient laws and how they forbid the gods from interacting with their demigod children. I hated the ancient laws, but understood there was nothing we could do to change them. As we were talking about camp Half Blood, which I thought would be lots of fun once I had to go, my mother walked in the door. As we were laughing because of a story about Chiron's family she walked up behind us.

When I noticed her, I slipped down from the couch and clumsily crawled over to her. She looked shocked, but she still reached down and picked me up when I reached her feet. I hugged her as best I could before letting go.

"Hello, Mommy," I said happily.

Her eyes widened as she stared at me in open mouthed shock.

"I… Uh-…" she stammered for a bit trying to catch up, before calming down and looking towards Hestia, "I suppose this is a demigod thing?" she asked hesitantly.

"You could say that, but it's more of a Perseus thing," she said.

"A…Perseus thing," she said sounding a little confused.

"Yes. Perseus is the only demigod I've ever seen with the Blessing of the Immortals…"

After that she went on to explain the blessing, what it meant for me and our future, ext. ext. She then explained the blessing she gave me.

"So… Percy doesn't have to worry about monsters?" Mom asked.

"Well… he won't until his scent naturally overpowers the blessing in about twelve years. At that point, he'll spend at least his summers at camp."

"And he will age a lot faster?"

"Yes, he will mentally and physically be ahead of his peers, but personally I think it would be better to keep him with his age group, to help him learn to interact with people his age."

"I… understand. And thank you for watching him for me, there's no words to describe how much I appreciate it."

"There's no need to thank me, I'm happy to help. Now, with that I'll take my leave. I'll be back tomorrow to watch Perseus."

"Good bye, Aunt Hestia!" I yelled as my aunt left through the front door.

"Good bye, young Perseus."

 **-LINE CUT-**

And that's how are days went bye. Mom would wake me up each morning and get me ready before we'd sit and wait for Aunt Hestia to show up. Aunt Hestia would arrive, and Mom would leave. Then Aunt Hestia would teach me a lot of things. Stuff about the world, about history, about science, about art, about numbers and letters, she taught me how to read and write. She told me about dyslexia and how it normally would keep me from reading, but since I had the Blessing of Immortals I should be able to learn to cope with it. Above all, though, she taught me about our family, going as far back as the creation of everything. Once I was able to move around properly, Aunt Hestia asked me If I wanted to start doing exercise. At first, I didn't see a reason too, but she then told it would help me survive once the blessing's anti-monster field was overpowered, so I agreed. When Mom got home each day I would give her a hug before giving a hug to Aunt Hestia as a good bye, and then I would sit and talk about all the things I learned that day, or I'd show Mom all the things I learned to do.

Like Aunt Hestia said, the Blessing of Immortals help me grow really quickly. I learn things really quickly, which hasn't seemed to slow down, and I got bigger really quickly which, like she said, seemed to slow down after a few weeks. My powers have grown as well, but I only get to practice those when we visit our cabin in Montauk, a place where we don't have to worry about people seeing us, because it's pretty secluded.

When I turned five [Mentally around nine] I started going to school, and I stopped seeing Aunt Hestia as much. I started missing her really badly after a few days, but I remembered I would see her once summer came so I didn't let her absence keep me from being happy about going to school.

My first day of school was… educational. It's not that I learned anything they were intentionally trying to teach us, but I did learn how ahead I truly am. For one, I was bigger than everyone, which was expected, but not by so much that I looked completely out of place. And two, I knew everything they were trying to teach us.

I did have fun though. I would sit at my table and I would do any work the teacher asked me to do, but when I wasn't specifically told to be doing anything I was normally sitting there drawing or writing to improve my handwriting. The teacher called on me a few times to answer questions, I think she was trying to catch me not paying attention, but I always knew the answers so after a while she left me alone. I talked to the other kids and they were nice, but they couldn't really hold a conversation so I stayed to myself more often than not. After school, Mom would pick me up and we'd spend the rest of the night like we normally do, talking about our days.

The days went on with me learning nothing, but one day that changed. We were in the library, and we were supposed to be looking at picture books (I was the only one that knew how to read), but I snuck off to find something interesting to read. As I walked through the aisles of the library I came across a section of the library I hadn't visited before. When I saw it for the first time I had to hold back a scream of excitement. I had come across an entire section filled with course books. Each grade has a course book they use to teach their year. I stole the teachers course book one day in class, and read it to find that I did, in fact, know everything in the book already, which wasn't much of a shock.

There were lots of course books, multiple copies of each year's book. I walked up to the first-year book and opened it, a quick skim through and I found nothing I didn't know already. So, I moved on to the second-year book… to find, once again, I knew everything in the book. I continued on and it wasn't until I got midway through the fourth-year book that I found anything I didn't already know. So that's where I decided to start. Before I could do so, however, I needed to get the book out of the library. I wouldn't have enough time to properly educate myself if I tried to do it only when I came to the library and I knew they wouldn't let me leave with it.

I thought about just sneaking it in my bag, but then remembered the scanner at the door would know if the book was checked out or not and would alert the librarians with an annoying sound I thought was out of place in a library. After taking a few minutes I came up with a plan to get the book out of the library.

After about twenty minutes we were called by the teacher to go back to class. As we were walking towards the exit I slipped an un-scanned book into one of the other kid's bags. When the scanner started beeping when he walked past it the kid started freaking out and just stood there, in that moment I slipped pass the scanner and into the hall. The teacher moved the kid back into the library and the beeping stopped. After a few minutes of the kid getting a stern talking to by the librarians (which I did feel a tad bit bad about, but he didn't get any real punishment so I didn't care very much) we walked back to class with no one the wiser of the book I stole.

The rest of the day went by as normal and when I got back home I ran to my room (which became mine when I turned one) after telling my mom I had homework. She looked a little confused since I normally completed all my work at school, but she didn't say anything except 'Okay Sweetie' as I ran by her. I closed my door, ran to my desk (which Aunt Hestia gave me when I turned three as a place to do work so my stuff didn't clutter the house), flipped on the lamp and pulled out my book. For the next few hours I sat at my desk and read through the book. I read through every page multiple times, soaking in as much content as I could. I knew somethings already, but there was enough stuff I didn't know so that the unquenchable thirst for knowledge I learned from my time with Aunt Hestia was being sated for the time being.

When dinner came around I ran out and decided to spend the rest of the night with my mom. I told her about the stuff I learned from the course book, and about where I learned it. I, however, didn't tell her about stealing the book (because let's face it, that's what I did). She was happy I was finding something to do at school, and even told me she was proud of her genius little boy. I loved the praise whole heartedly.

The year went on like that, I spent my time in class practicing my art skills and handwriting or quickly rushing through the work they gave me. When I would finish a book at home, I got a new one from the library (I decided to keep the ones I finished because I couldn't think of a way to get them back in the library). I picked a new kid as my scape goat each time, to not create a pattern. Then I would learn from that book. The school only had course books up to grade eight, so I knew the system wouldn't work indefinitely, but there was more than enough content to last me the entire year and part of next year. I didn't focus entirely on learning either. I remembered what Aunt Hestia taught me about exercise so I would exercise at home as well. That was the routine I followed until the end of the year.

The end of the year wasn't very special. The last day consisted of a party where the kids got food and candy and a lot of time to sign year books and such. I didn't let any of the kids in my class near my year book. I had seen the way they write and I didn't want multiple pages of my book filled with useless scribbles. I did, however, get my teacher to sign my year book. She scrawled down some cheesy nonsense about how much she loved having me in class. I knew it wasn't true. We had barely spoken at all throughout the year, she taught me nothing so I didn't care much for her as a teacher. I had only gotten her to sign it because I know my mom would notice if the section was empty.

In other news, I had gotten through the fourth- and fifth-year books and had started on the sixth so the year wasn't completely wasted, and my drawing skills had increased a lot. Something I kept from the teacher and the other students. I didn't want them to ask any questions about it. I had also gotten stronger physically. I wasn't overly muscular like some of the athletes I've seen on TV, but the muscles I did have were dense and developed for use rather than showing off. I was the strongest and fastest kid in class, which would make sense do to my status as a demigod, but I got the top spot in physical education without even trying so I guessed I was more developed than even a demigod my age would be.

As the last day of school ended, I could be found calmly waiting for the day to end and my mother to pick me up. Lost in my thoughts of what I would do with my summer I didn't notice my mother approaching me until she placed a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped a little, then, noticing who it was, I smiled and said, "Hi, Mom."

"Hello, Sweetie," she said while reaching out her hand for me to take.

I stood up and we started walking. My mother waved to the principle watching over the parents picking up their kids, who waved back.

As we were walking to the bus station my mother looked down at me and asked, "How was your day Percy?"

I thought for a few seconds about what I wanted to tell her before saying, "It was… interesting?" though it sounded more like a question then a statement.

"Interesting," she said with a deadpan look and tone.

I sighed before saying, "Okay, you got me. All we did was sit around talking and eating food. Seriously, Mom, why waste an entire doing nothing? Well, I guess from their standpoint it's normal for six-year olds to like sitting around, doing useless things. Well, whatever. I got a lot of time to practice drawing and I even got my teacher to sign my year book!" I said the last part with fake excitement in my voice so my mother wouldn't worry, which she saw right through, even if I didn't know it.

"Well, I know you haven't been very happy with the school," she said, "So, I talked to your principal and she mentioned that, while you could skip a few grades, she thought it would be better if we found a gifted school for you."

My face lit up with actual excitement as I asked exuberantly, "Really? Do you think I could?"

I saw her frown a little bit before saying, "There's no doubt in my mind that you could, but the only schools anywhere near us are boarding schools." I hadn't heard that term before and was slightly confused, which she noticed because she's the best mom in the world.

"It means that you'll have to spend the school year in a dormitory at the school," she elaborated for me.

My face fell slightly as I heard that. I would get a better education and could hopefully find people capable of at least intelligent conversation, but I wouldn't see my mother throughout the year.

"Oh," I said.

"Yes, I thought you might think that. We don't have decide now, but the deadline for admissions desiring scholarships, which we'll definitely need to pay for it, is the end of June."

"Okay, Mom," I said, "I'll tell you what I think before then."

"Thank you, Sweetie," she said as she we climbed on the bus.

The ride home was uneventful. I filled my mom in on the specifics of my day, she told me what she did as well. Then we sat in silence for a while, enjoying the hum of the wheels on the road, lost in our thoughts of the future.

When we got home, I walked to my room and sat at my desk, doing nothing but thinking about what I wanted to do. The decision didn't come to me, and my thoughts were eventually interrupted by a knock at my door and a soft call of, _'dinners ready'_ on the other side. The rest of the night was filled with chatter about useless things before I decided to go to bed, earlier then I normally do. It was a restless night, filled with restless thoughts.

I woke up early the next morning and lied in my bed until my mom opened the door.

"Sweetie," she said, "I have to leave for work soon. Aunt Hestia is here to watch you."

Those words seemed to break me out of the slump I had been in since our conversation the day before. I bolted out of bed, through my doorway, and stopped in the doorway of the living room to see Aunt Hestia sitting on the couch. She smiled at me and I smiled back before running at her with a cry of, "Aunt Hestia!" and jumping into her opened arms. We embraced for a few moments before she pulled back and looked at me.

"Hello, young Perseus. I take it you missed me?" she said.

I might have been upset about her calling me Perseus, I had become partial to Percy near the start of the school year, but I was so excited to hear her so I just smiled and nodded before saying, "I missed you so much Aunt Hestia. I have so much to tell you."

"I missed you as well, Perseus. Why don't we say goodbye to your mother, and then we can catch up on our past year?" she asked.

"Okay," I said before jumping down and giving my mom a hug to her legs. "I'll miss you," I said.

"I'll miss you as well, Sweetie," she said as she placed her hands on my back. A moment passed before she stepped back, grabbed her bag, and walked through the door, closing it behind her.

I turned to Aunt Hestia and smiled.

"So how was your year Perseus?" she asked me.

" _Well,_ Aunt Hestia, first please call me Percy, I think Perseus is to stuffy."

"Okay, Percy. If you insist."

"And secondly, my year was interesting to say the least. The first part of the year was wasted siting in class 'learning' things I already know. On the bright side, I got a lot of time to practice drawing. My knowledge level was stagnant for a while until I found some upper-grade-level course books in the library. Once I found those, I started teaching myself when I could and continued drawing in class, so the year wasn't a _complete_ waste of time, but it was so boring at times I actually fell asleep in class!" I yelled the last pat indignantly.

Her laugh was melodious and for a second, I was offended about her disregard for my situation, but I quickly got over it and also saw the humor in the situation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Let's all laugh at Percy for being too smart for school." I said with a sarcastic tone and a slight smile on my face. That seemed to make her laugh ever harder which made me smile.

Once she got her laughter under control she sighed and said, "I forgot just how much I love our conversations Percy."

I smiled and said, "I love talking to you to Aunt Hestia."

"So, you're not learning anything from your teachers. Are you at least getting along with the other children?" she asked with a somewhat worried look on her face.

I sighed and said, "I don't _dislike_ any of the students."

"But you also don't particularly like any of them, do you?" she said.

I looked down, sighed again, and quietly said "No," before I looked up and said progressively louder as the tirade went on, "But that's not _my_ fault, six-year olds can barely string together a proper sentence. How am I supposed to find companionship in a bunch of people who sound like they're mentally challenged or something? I mean really, the second smartest kid in that class could barely even spell his own name by then end of the year, and I'm supposed to converse with them? Really?"

She laughed again and for a moment I was still quite upset, but I sighed and gave a slight smile seeing the humorous side to this as well. A kid barely over the age of six, sat and ranted about his peers being too moronic, in his opinion, to properly converse with. It's pretty funny.

"I can see how that would be upsetting, have you talked to your mother about it?" she asked.

"Yes, and that's an entirely different problem I face," I said without elaborating.

She had a puzzled look on her face and seemed to be waiting for me to explain, when she realized nothing would be forthcoming she said, "And why is that, Percy?" in a quiet tone.

I paused before speaking, debating on whether I wanted to tell her or not. It's not that I didn't want her to know, it's that I didn't like thinking about it too much because I always seemed to her upset. I eventually decided that she would be one of the ones to best help me through this so I eventually said, "Mom said she talked to the principle, and the principle said the school _could_ administer some tests to see if I can skip grades, _but_ she also said that she believes skipping grades wouldn't be in my best interests, that she believes skipping grades would just earn me the animosity of my peers."

"Did she give a better solution?" Aunt Hestia asked.

"Yeah, she did. She suggested a few private schools in the area. Schools that are for gifted students working above grade level, but… all of the schools she suggested and the schools that Mom could find are boarding schools," I said with a slight hitch in my voice, trying to keep from crying in front of one of the two people I respect in my life.

I couldn't keep the tears from falling, however, when I felt a pair of warm arms around me. I let the flood gates release and cried into her arms.

"Shh, Young Percy. It's okay," she said quietly into my ear.

"I-I don't know what to do," I got out in between sobs.

"I know Percy. I know. But, this is a decision you will have to make. I know you don't want to leave your mother for the year, but I also know that your mother would hate herself if she was the reason you didn't do something like this. I know it will be hard, and I know there will be tough times, but this is a possibility I don't think you should pass up."

I calmed down and slowly stopped crying. As I did I noticed the room also stopped shaking. _'Oops, I didn't even notice I started shaking. I should learn to control that better,'_ I thought sheepishly. For a few moments we sat in silence, her embracing me and trying to comfort me and me keeping quiet for fear that speaking again would lead to more crying, ergo more building shaking. After about an hour I finally calmed down enough to speak without fear of crying again. "Thank you, Aunt Hestia. I think I've made my decision."

"You're welcome, Percy. I'm just glad I could help."

"Well, you did. I guess I'll have to decide which school I want to go to," I said, voice still somewhat quiet from the emotions I had been feeling moments ago and their lingering effects on me.

"I think I can help with that, Percy. My niece, who's also your cousin, has set up a school I think would be perfect for you. She was a bit straight forward in naming it, but I guess she was focused on more important things. Either way, the school is the best in New York and arguably the best in the world. It was the first gifted school erected in the US and has been call Athena's School for Gifted Youngsters since its creation. It is famously hard to get into, but that's for typical children. With your intelligence, you should be able to get it in with zero problems and I would even bet on you getting the scholarship you need. And before you ask, it is a boarding school."

By the end of her little speech about Athena's School for Gifted Youngsters, I was amazed at the prospect of attending such a school. I knew who Athena was, of course. I learned about all of the Olympian gods, their immediate families, and many minor gods from both Aunt Hestia and books I found in the school. And as it turned out, Athena was one of my favorite gods, behind only Aunt Hestia, for obvious reasons, and Poseidon because I believe him to be my father, and even though I believe that and know Poseidon doesn't get along with Athena I've always loved Athena. From Aunt Hestia's stories, I could tell she was a bit prideful, but I knew who her father was so I really couldn't blame her. What fascinated me was her status as goddess of wisdom, and architecture, and really all things intellectual including the arts. With the exception of my believed father's domains, her attributes of intelligence and wisdom were the ones I attributed to myself the most. I've loved learning for as long as I can remember, so the thought of going to a school established by basically the god of learning was amazing to me. It solidified my decision even more.

A look of determination came across my face as I said, "I don't want to leave Mom, but… this is something I can't pass up."

"Very good, Percy. Now, in the meantime, we can study for the entrance exam and tomorrow I can bring the application. We can talk to your mother about it when she gets home."

And that's how my summer went. My mom said it was a great idea for me to go to Athena's school and even though we knew I would be away from her for the year we also knew it was for the best. So, I studied with Aunt Hestia during the day. Everything from math, to history, to art and anything in between we could think of. Aunt Hestia didn't know what would be on the entrance exam, but she did know it was meant for highly advanced first graders with intelligence levels generally a few grade levels higher than normal at the most, so I, working on things almost seven years ahead of my grade, should be able to pass the test with ease.

Even though I knew she was right and believed her when she said the test should be easy I still found myself worried as time went on. It was so bad that I spent almost every waking moment studying. That's not to say I gave up on my physical exercises, on the contrary I worked even more on them then normal with all the free time I had. I even started practicing with a dull sword Aunt Hestia got me, but if I wasn't eating, sleeping or exercising, I was studying. I finished the sixth-year course book in about a week of staying up late at night for study time and then I went through the seventh, which I stole shortly before the year's end for extra reading material during the summer, in three more weeks.

At the end of that I still had three weeks until the entrance exams so I decided to reread all the course books I had stolen. But midway through my first book I realized how much that was wasting my time, so, in absence of ways to learn, I decided to turn to my art. I had been working with Aunt Hestia with art during the day, and while she wasn't the god of art she did have hundreds of years to practice which made her masterfully good, so she had a lot to teach me. During my late-night study periods, I practiced my art. It was fun and I got a lot of practice. My days repeated like that, wakeup, Aunt Hestia would come and teach me things during the day, then I practiced my art at night before going to sleep. It was one of the best times of my life, and even though I faced the stress of the entrance exams I was truly happy.

 **-LINE CUT-**

The day of the entrance exam arrived, and as my natural clock awoke me, like it did every other day. I was nervous, but it wasn't the mind-numbing nervousness that I'd been feeling the past few days. It was more of a passive nervousness you feel when doing something important. A nervousness that makes you think a thousand thoughts at every moment, and keeps you on your toes because you know there is no making mistakes. It's either pass or fail, win or lose, live or die. Your hands still shake, you're still worried, but you can work through it.

I slipped out of bed and forwent clothes like every other day. I was going to skip my morning exercise, but I realized not releasing my pent-up energy would just make me more nervous. So, I mechanically went through the motions. I found out that, as a demigod, my muscles won't atrophy meaning I don't technically have to exercise as much as I do, but I also know living life as a demigod won't be easy once monsters start coming for me. Consequentially, I've gotten into the habit of working as hard as I can even when I feel off, or nervous like this morning.

By the end of my workout I was sweating profusely and breathing pretty hard. This was normal for me, however, so I walked to the corner of my room and picked up my sword. It wasn't the greatest sword in the world, and it wasn't supposed to be. Aunt Hestia said that if I could be great with a bad sword I would be unstoppable with a good one. So, I used a dull, unbalanced, unnecessarily heavy sword. I wasn't the best with it, I could tell. I did only have a few weeks with it and, presumably because of my demigod status, I'm not horrible. That doesn't mean I'd win any fights with anyone even slightly experienced, but I would last longer than a few seconds.

I went through the motions, like I do every morning. Slashes, jabs, parries, one-handed, two-handed, left-handed, right-handed, ext. ext. I loved working with the sword about as much as I loved learning. There was something about the way the blade, even the crappy one I was using, cut through the air that I fell in love with. It was relaxing and exhilarating at the same time in perfect balance. The time I spent with my sword was one of the best parts of my day.

Once I decided I was finished, I put my sword in its place, before grabbing clothes and heading for the shower. I learned long ago that showering after exercise would heal my stressed muscles and would keep me from being sore all day, so I approved physically much faster and I didn't have to deal with the soreness often associated with rigorous exercises. Another thing I started doing was practicing with my water control during my showers. I've always had pretty much perfect control of it, but recently I've been working on creating solid constructs by increasing the surface tension of the water. I'd also worked on changing the temperature of the water, which was very difficult at first, and still was, but I'd gotten considerable better at it and could do it in small amounts now without feeling completely drained afterwards.

After my shower, I got dressed and went to the kitchen to get breakfast before we left. My mother was sitting at her desk writing, like she did most mornings. I ate some fruit and yogurt and drank some milk. We still had about an hour before we needed to leave, so I pulled the small sketchbook I keep in my pocket out, and started a quick sketch of my mom. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't supposed to be, but it was pretty well done and she told me so when I showed it to her. I have lots of drawing of my mother, she happens to be one of my best models, along with Aunt Hestia. I draw other things as well, from landscapes to people, from realistic to cartoonish, I draw everything, but I love drawing people the most. We were silent as the time passed, with her focusing on her writing and me on the picture I was drawing of her. The silence was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That must be your aunt," Mom said.

I smiled and ran to the door, pulling it open for Aunt Hestia to come in.

"Hello, Aunt Hestia," I said.

"Hello, Percy. Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm a bit nervous about it though," I told her.

"It's okay to be nervous, as long as you can work through it, you'll eventually realize you have no reason to worry. Now, do you remember what I told you about this mist?" she asked.

I was a bit confused at the sudden, seemingly unconnected, question, but I answered anyways, "Yeah, the mist is a mystical force controlled by the goddess Hecate. It hides the mystical world from most mortals, but demigods can somewhat see through it and clear-sighted mortals aren't affected by it at all. You also said that the Blessing of Immortals will increase my natural sense of the mist allowing me to feel when the mist is in effect around me, alerting me to the presence of something from our world."

"Very good, Percy. I ask because I wanted you to remember it for your day. Your blessing will prevent monsters from actively seeking you out, but if a monster happens upon you, it is more likely for them to attack, because of your seemingly week appearance, than to run because of the deterrence of the blessing. This means, if a monster does appear today, you will have to be prepared for it. So, I have brought a gift for you, a gift from your father," she said as she held out her hand. In her hand was a ballpoint pin.

I deadpanned at her and said, "That's a pen."

"Yes," she said like it made all the sense in the world.

"A regular ballpoint pen," I said.

"No, a magic pen. If you are attacked I want you to pull out this pen and uncap it. You will know what to do with it when the times right. Also, do not attempt to use the pen as a writing utensil… at least not yet. It will just be more trouble than it's worth," she informed me.

I thought she was playing a joke on me, but I reached out and took the pen anyways. I put it in my pocket then thought of something, "What if I lose it?" I asked.

"You can't," she said and then, answering the question I was obviously about to ask, she added, "It's enchanted. It will return to your pocket no matter what. If you don't have pockets it won't return to you, but the moment you gain an item of clothing with pockets again it will reappear."

"Wow," I said. I knew no one would take the time enchant a pin like that if it wasn't something special. So even though it looked and felt like an ordinary pen, I knew it was something special.

"Thank you, Aunt Hestia, and if you see him can you thank my father?" I stated then asked.

"You're welcome, and of course I will. Now, let's say goodbye to your mother and then I'll take you to the school."

I murmured, "Okay," as I ran to my mother to say goodbye.

 **-LINE CUT-**

The trip to the school was… interesting, to say the least. It wasn't uncomfortable, well except the blinding light, but it did feel a bit disconcerting. Aunt Hestia said it was called flashing, an ability all godly being had in which they assumed their true form for the split second required for them to 'flash', or teleport in laymen's terms, to anywhere in the world they want to go. It felt _really_ warm as a flash of light forced me to close my eyes. When I opened them again we were in a completely different place.

The new place didn't look very different then my neighborhood at first, but I noticed that the building and people all got considerably _wealthier_ as we continued to move around _._ I suddenly felt very out of place in my Walmart bought clothes and realized for the first time what true wealth looked like, I was slightly unsettled.

I didn't let the blatant difference in classes affect me though. After the initial shock and awe of seeing so many wealthy people I returned to my confident walk and calculating stare at everything around me. You can learn a lot by watching the things around you. I noticed the few subtle glances thrown my way and the many more not-so-subtle glances thrown Aunt Hestia's. I understood it, of course. I have always thought Aunt Hestia was stunningly gorgeous, that didn't change the fact that my aunt was getting openly ogled, which upset me for some reason even if Aunt Hestia didn't seem to notice them at all. I threw some glares at the guys, but they didn't seem to care which just upset me more. Just because I looked like a seven-year-old didn't mean I couldn't kick their ugly asses.

After about twenty minutes we came up to a giant school, and I mean **GIANT**. The main building **alone** looked like it could hold twenty of my old schools, and there were at least four other building that I could immediately see. It was absolutely massive. Aunt Hestia looked nonchalant as we stopped walking. Looking in front of us I noticed we were standing in a long line of parents and children around my age. We were presumably waiting to get through the large security gate I could see far ahead of us.

I looked directly ahead of us to find a woman holding a young girl's hand. The girl looked to be about six, my age, and the lady looked to be about as old as my own mother. The women was beautiful. She had shoulder length red hair and a lean body that seemed slightly muscular from labor rather than exercise. She was wearing jeans and a jacket over a plaid shirt. She wasn't very tall, about five four. The girl was equally beautiful. She had black hair that went slightly past her shoulder, she was wearing jeans and a jacket. She was shorter then me by about four inches placing her at a round three nine.

I then noticed that the girl was also looking at me. I considered not saying anything because the kids at my school never seemed to care, but there was something about her that incited me to speak.

"Hello," I said.

She gave a soft 'eep' and hid behind her mother's legs and I gathered from her response that she was quite shy. I smiled at her before speaking.

"What are you doing?" I asked steadily, but without any accusations of wrong doing, like asking a friend what they were doing over the weekend.

She was quiet and said nothing at first, but she hesitantly leaned slightly into view, avoiding eye contact as she hesitantly said, "I-I'm not g-good with people."

"Ooh," I said, "That makes sense. I'm not particularly good with people either. Especially the kids at my old school. They were all blundering dunderheads who could barely form a coherent sentence. It got to the point that I actively _avoided_ speaking with them."

She smiled slightly before quietly saying, "I-I know how you feel. I c-couldn't really get along with the k-kids at my school either. They weren't v-very smart."

I smiled brightly at her before saying, "I know right. I started school excited about learning, but I could tell by the end of the first day I was smarter than the average kid. I mean really, none of them even knew the alphabet! Seriously, A-B-C, it's not that hard to remember."

She giggled quietly. I noticed she wasn't hiding behind her mother's legs as much, which made me smile.

"My names, Perseus, but I prefer the name Percy," I said, "Might I ask for yours?"

She hesitated a little before saying with a small smile, "I-I'm Theta. It's nice to meet you Percy."

I smiled brightly at her as I said, "It is very nice to meet you, as well, Theta."

She smiled at me and by this point was fully out from behind her mother and standing in front of me.

"Do you know how long we'll have to wait?" I asked her.

"I think I heard my mom say the doors opened in about twenty minutes and then we'll have to go through registration a few at a time which will hold us up a little longer," she said in her quiet tone.

"Hmm, that's not very long I guess. At least I have a pretty girl to talk to while I wait," I said with a grin.

Theta's reaction was pretty comical. At first, she looked confused at what I meant, but then the meaning donned on her and she blushed furiously before stuttering out, "Th-thank you for c-calling me p-pr-pretty. No one besides my mother has called me that before," with a cute smile and an ever-persisting blush.

I smiled back as I said, "Well, I don't know why that is. I think you're one of the prettiest girls I've ever met."

She blushed slightly more, but then got a saddened look on her face as she looked down saying, "Y-you don't mean that."

I gave her an aghast look, like that statement personally hurt me as I said in a grandiose manner, "I most certainly do mean that! Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

She looked at me with a somewhat shocked at and somewhat confused look. I guess she didn't get the reference. It's a bit much to expect most people to recognize every Shakespeare quote and even more so for kids our age. That man was a genius, but the old English dialect can be hard for most people to understand.

It was at that time I noticed many people staring at me with agape expressions, and Aunt Hestia with an amused expression.

My cheeks gained a slight hue as I said, "Sorry for interrupting your conversations. It won't happen again."

They all looked at me in unconcealed shock before they slowly went back to their conversations, or lack thereof for most of them.

I turned back to Theta and sighed slightly before saying, "It was Shakespeare."

Her expression didn't become any less confused so I elaborated.

"The poem," she gave me and understanding expression, but I continued nonetheless, "It was written by Shakespeare. It means I find you as beautiful as a summer's day, but unlike summer your beauty doesn't give way to fall. It is eternal," I explained.

She still looked slightly confused, but then shook her head and said, "You must be really smart if you can understand something like that! I've tried reading some Shakespeare, and I understood almost none of it."

She was speaking much louder than before. I guess the possibility of having intelligent conversation with someone near her age was as exciting a concept as it was for me.

"Yeah, I get that. Old English is hard for most _adults_ to read, that you understood even a little of it is impressive. I only understand it because my aunt's been teaching me Old English since I was four, two years of experience and a great teacher would be enough for anyone to understand it," I said with a smile.

She looked at me shocked for a moment before saying, "You're only six," in a questioning tone.

"Well, yeah. Why do you ask?" I inquired, even though I knew the reason.

"I-It's just that you look older than all the boys that were in my class and you wouldn't be the only older kid taking the test if you were," she told me.

"Well, I'm not. I've always been ahead of my peers. My natural accelerated growth and the fact I've been doing exercise for almost as long as I can remember just put me ahead. I may look like a seven or eight-year-old, but I'm actually only six," I explained with a smile.

"I-uh guess that makes sense. I'm only six as well as and as you can see," she said gesturing towards herself, "I'm average height."

"Yes, you are. I can also tell that you are above average in the intelligence department, if I'm not mistaken," I told her.

"You most certainly are not mistaken," she said with an air of confidence I found interesting, "I was the smartest kid in my grade at my old school, but that's not that much of an accomplishment when the next smartest kid is barely capable of reading more than three letter words."

I chuckled at that and said, "That's so true. I had no idea how they expected me to converse with those kids. I tried talking with some of them, but not even five minutes passed before I realized they could _barely_ put together a coherent sentence!"

"Oh my god that's so true," she said laughing.

I smiled at her and said, "At least I've finely found someone I can actually talk to who's not my mother or my aunt."

"I know what you mean. My mom was the only person I've been able to talk to for a while, but I've been okay with that. I love my mom," she told me with a smile.

"Amen to that," I smiled at her.

We continued talking for a while. About ourselves, our old schools, our parents. We had a lot of things in common. I learned that she was also really intelligent. She was reading at a twelve-year-old level, she was working on beginner level algebra. She was amazed when I told her I was reading at about a sixteen-year-old level, I was currently midway through a book on basic geometry, and started learning about biology. What we had most in common, however, was our love of history. Mine stemmed from the drive to learn as much about the demigods of the past to learn about my family, hers stemmed from a general love of stories of the past.

I learned that she lived on a farm with her mother and that she loved learning about the different crops they grew. What interested me the most, however, was learning that she had never met her father before. She said she was told by her mother that he worked in Italy and couldn't visit. I explained how I also didn't know my father because he had to work which we bonded over for a few moments. At that point, the line started moving forward. We walked together and we continued talking. Once we got to the front of the line we split up for a few seconds to get signed in and then got together afterwards to walk together to the test center.

We stopped outside the test center doors to say goodbye to our guardians before we pushed the door open to walk into a giant room. There were many rows of desks that went until the back of the room and at the front of the room was a large chalk board with the words 'take a seat and wait' written out in large bold letters. I started walking towards a seat when I noticed Theta still staring at the board. I approached her and said, "Are you okay?"

She startled slightly and said, "Yeah, sorry about that. I have dyslexia it was just taking me awhile to read the board."

At that I smiled at that, and told her, "That makes sense," as we continued on to take a seat. We conversed lightly for about half an hour about our favorite history stories. The room slowly filled with other potential students until finally a young woman walked in. I watched her walk to the front of the room, and as I watched her I noticed a slight shimmering around her form that I had only seen a few times before. It was the shimmer that appeared around things cloaked in the mist. As I realized this I watched the mist slowly dissipate from my vision and I saw her for what she was. She was beautiful, undoubtedly more so than before actually, but the contours of her face adjusted slightly, her skin now had a light blue tint to it, and her hair, which was a dark brown, was now a deep blue.

My breath caught in my throat for a second. What was she and what was she doing here? Was she going to hurt us? What did she want? Those thoughts rushed through me head until I pushed them aside and realized the obvious. The school is run by Athena, it's probable the staff won't be entirely human. She must be someone Athena brought in, and if she has the favor of the wisdom goddess then she must be intelligent, which means she deserves my respect. _'Huh,'_ I thought, _'a teacher I can actually respect. That's new.'_

The lady walked to the front of the room before facing the class and scanning the room for a second. Theta and I were a few rows back, but I swear I saw her eyes linger on me for a second longer than anyone else. I wonder why?

Once she finished taking stock of the room she said in a calm tone, "Hello everyone. My name is Galene and-,"

"No way!" I accidentally let out in excitement.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" she asked.

At this point I noticed everyone staring at me in confusion, even Theta, so I, having the decency to look sheepish, said, "Sorry. Galene is just the names of one of my favorite Greek goddesses. I didn't mean to sound out. It won't happen again." I said. It was true as well. One of my favorite ways to pass time was reading about my family history. I read about Galene in a few places and was really interested in her, she was my favorite nereid actually.

Galene looked a bit surprised by my words, but shortly after shook it off and said, "Very well. As I was saying, I will be your room monitor today. I will be making sure no one cheats, and I will also be here if anyone has any questions." As she finished, the door opened once again and another lady walked in.

The new lady, at first, seemed to be very tall, but, like with Galene, that didn't last long and as the mist dismissed I realized it wasn't a very tall woman, it's was a harpy. Or at least what I thought was a harpy, from the descriptions I've read in books and gotten from Aunt Hestia.

"This is Anna," said Galene, "She will hand out your test packets. When you receive yours, place it in front of you and wait for further instructions." As she said this the harpy hovered around the room dropping test packets on people's desks. When she got to me she dropped the packet on my desk and then stared at me for a few seconds before moving on. Once everyone had a test packet in front of them the harpy flew to the front of the room and perched herself on the side of Galene's desk.

"Now that everyone has a packet, I want you to open and remove their contents when I say so. Inside you will find a sealed test booklet, an answer sheet, and a directions card. I want you to read and follow the instructions on the directions card to the tee. Do exactly what is on the card no matter what it says," we were told, "Now, you may begin."

I opened the packet and pulled out the materials. I found the booklet, the answer sheet, and a sheet of paper. When I pulled the directions card out I noticed it was slightly covered in the mist. The illusion lasted only a second or two under my eyes before it slipped off. I also noticed everyone else's cards were also covered in a thin layer of the mist.

I looked at the card to find a letter that read:

 _Dear Applicant,_

 _You have met the requirements to participate in our special examination. This examination will be completed at a later time, and will require different testing materials that we will provide for you at the time of testing. Be aware that the special examination is generally considered more difficult than the average exam. You are not being forced to take it, but it is an opportunity few get and the difficulty in the exam is considered when your application is reviewed._

 _If you do not wish to take the special exam, then do the following:_

 _1: Use only the pencils provided, found in your desk, to fill out sections A to E on the top of the answer sheet._

 _2: Carefully unseal the test booklet and put any trash to the side._

 _3: Fill in the bubble on the answer sheet corresponding to your answer._

 _4: You will have four hours to complete all the sections of the test._

 _5: If any scrap paper is needed for the math section, you will find some in the desk._

 _6: When time is called put your pencil down and stop, you will then receive further instruction._

 _7: If you have any questions during the testing period, please raise your hand quietly to get the attention of your room monitor._

 _8: Your desk also contains a small bottle of water, an eraser, and extra writing utensils._

 _If you wish to take the special exam your instructions are to sit quietly and wait for the test to complete. When the testing period is finished, sit quietly and wait for the other applicants to leave the room. Your room monitor will be back shortly after to give you new instructions. Your guardians have already been informed of this possibility, so you have no need to worry there. While you wait you may not converse with the other applicants, you may not leave the room without the explicit permission of your room monitor. You may use the materials found inside your desk as you desire to help pass the time as long as you do not disrupt the other applicants. Make your decision quickly and follow the corresponding instructions. Thank you for your time._

 _Cecrops_

There were many things in the letter that shocked me. The first being its mere existence. I guessed that every instruction card was actually this letter coated in the mist, but only a thin layer so an untrained demigod would be able to easily see through it. A way to test for demigods and clearsighted mortals. I was also shocked that they had apparently already informed Aunt Hestia somehow, but I guessed there was some charm work in place.

What surprised me the most, however, was the name at the end. Cecrops was an Athenian king who, in common mythology, is said to have created the Greek alphabet. Aunt Hestia told me Athena actually gave him the knowledge and he stole her credit. I would have thought he was killed because of that, but his name was on the letter so I guess not. It could have been the Orphic poet, but I seriously doubt that.

My decision was easy enough to make. Whatever reason they have for looking for demigods couldn't be very nefarious. The school was run by Athena, and while she might hold a grudge against some gods/goddesses and by extension their children, Aunt Hestia told me she was indifferent towards most demigods, favoring her children above all else. Aunt Hestia also told me she respected people with strong minds which boded well for me even if Poseidon was most likely my father.

So, I put the letter down and sat quietly for a few seconds. I decided quickly that while sitting quietly for a few hours wasn't impossible I would find more interest in the materials in my desk. I opened the desk and took out the stack of paper, a few pencils, and the water bottle. I placed them on my desk and stared at the materials for a while. I could draw which would help pass the time very well. Or I could practice my water control, but judging by the "discreet" glances Galene was throwing me, probably for the mention of my interest in her or maybe because I wasn't doing the test, I wouldn't get away with that. I wouldn't keep my demigod status a secret, but the knowledge of my father was, I wasn't supposed to be born after all. I looked back down at my things and decided I would draw a picture.

I debated drawing Theta, but feared that my continued observation of her could be misconstrued at an attempt to disrupt her or the others testers. I also thought of drawing something from memory, but decided otherwise. Then I thought of drawing Galene. I had no reason not to. There was no way to misconstrue observing the room monitor as a way of disrupting the others, and she was one of my favorite goddesses so I'd have a memento from the tests at least. I looked up and saw that Galene had started walking around the room. Probably making sure no one was cheating.

I watched her for a while before I got to work. I knew it would take most of the time given, but I had no qualms with that as I also didn't care how long it took me. I didn't rush and by the time I finished there were only a few minutes before the testing period was over. I put my things down and waited. I watched the room, noticing only now that Galene's prowling had brought her near my desk.

She stopped right next to me and stared at the picture I had drawn. She continued staring at it and I noticed she looked somewhat shocked. I understood that it was because I had drawn her un-mist-cloaked self. After a moment she seemed to shake her shock off and give me a contemplating look before continuing her walk around the room.

When she got back to the front of the room she glanced at the clock before turning to the room and saying in a sturdy tone, "Your time is up. Please place your pencils on your desks and follow the post testing directions you were given on your instructions card."

When she said this people started getting up and leaving the room. Once people stopped leaving the room I noticed that the only people left in the classroom were me, Theta and one other girl with blonde hair. I looked to Theta and smiled as I stood up and said, "Follow me." I picked up my picture and made my way to the other girl in the room.

We stopped in front of the girl and I said, "Hey. I'm Percy and this is Theta," as I gestured to myself and then Theta

She looked at me and smiled, "My name's Annabeth."

I smiled at her and said, "It's nice to meet you."

She looked like she was about to say something when she stopped herself and stared at me for a few seconds before gasping and saying, "You were the one that yelled out at the start!"

I gave her a sheepish smile and said, "Yeah, that was me. I did say I was sorry about that."

"I didn't actually care, I was just surprised you knew the name Galene. I haven't found _anyone_ who knows about her as well," she said.

I smiled at her and said, "You can't expect many people to have read the _Theogony._ Even the best translations can be pretty hard to understand and from what I've seen of the world most people don't want to spend hours trying to understand millennia old stories. I almost gave up halfway through it myself, but either way I made it through."

She stared at me in shock before saying, "You've actually _read_ the _Theogony!"_

"Well, yeah. How else would I have known about Galene?" I asked confused.

"W-Well my dad read the _Theogony_ to me, so I thought yours might have as well," she said bashfully.

"Oh, that makes sense. But I've never met my dad so the prospect of him reading me a book is pretty low," I said somewhat downtrodden.

"Oh," she said, "Well I've never met my mother so I understand how you feel."

"I-I've never met my dad either," Theta spoke up for the first time.

I smiled at them both and said, "Look at us. Just a group of bastard kids who only know one of there parents. Three peas in a pod. The three amigos. One for all and all for one and all that stuff."

We sat around talking for a while longer. After about fifteen minutes Galene came back in, stood in the door frame, and said, "Follow me please." I got a questioning glance from Theta and Annabeth, to which I just shrugged, stood up and followed Galene out the door with Annabeth and Theta at my right and left respectively.

As we walked down that halls Galene glanced over her shoulder at us and said, "Because you three have met the requirements for the special exam you have automatically been accepted into the school. You will be placed into housing with the others who met the requirements this year and the years before this. Unlike the other houses in the school you will not attend classes with your house mates, instead the exam you are about to take will determine which house or houses you will attend classes with. There is one exception to this rule, however, which will be explained at a later date. Everything you need to know about the school system will be explained at a later date, for now you should worry only about the test you are about to take." With that we entered a giant gymnasium and were led to the opposite side of the room.

"In through there," Galene said pointing at a door, "Are the changing rooms. You will find proper attire waiting for you. Put it on before retuning here, leave your things in a locker. Girls to the left, boys to the right. Haste would be appreciated."

We walked through the doors and I waved to the girls before heading right into the boys changing room. The room was fairly large with a multitude of lockers lining the walls. There was a table in the middle of the room and on the table was a set of exercise clothes.

The shirt was red with a flag I saw in a book about present day Greek on the back. If I remembered correctly it was the flag of Athens. The shirt was pretty tight fitting, but I was used to it as I've worn similar clothes when I exercised in the past. The shorts were also red, were pretty loose fitting and went down to a few inches above my knee. There was also a pair of running shoes and socks on the table in the same red color.

I stripped down to me briefs and slipped the clothes own. I patted my right pocket, felt the pen Aunt Hestia gave me and smiled. Then I sat on a bench to slip on my socks and shoes before lacing said shoes, doing some light stretching, and heading for the door to the gym. As I approached the door I saw Theta and Annabeth coming from their locker room. I smiled at them as I pushed the door open and held it for them. The smiled back and I closed the door as we walked into the room. We approached Galene and waited for more instructions.

"Okay. We will start with some physical aptitude tests. This will be a series of test to gage your physical abilities in the following areas: strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility. We will start with a strength test. Please follow me."

We followed Galene to a large metal circle at one side of the gym. In the middle of the circle was a large metal bar that was about four feet long laying in the middle of the circle. There was a screen in the floor near the circle and as we approached it I saw the display read **0** **lb**.

"This test is simple. Walk over and pick up the bar. You may use any means necessary to do so as long as you stay in that circle. The bar will get progressively heavier as time moves on. The moment the bar touches the ground your score will be set and the test will be over. Your results will be displayed here."

It did seem pretty simple, but a multitude of questions were still flowing through my head. Was it technology that made the bar heavier or was it some sort of magic? She said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed in the circle, so does that mean we can use any demigod powers we might have? And if we can how can I use mine to help?

One question I had, though, I thought might actually be answered.

"Will we ever do these tests again?" I asked.

Galene stared at me for a second before saying, "Yes," with no further explanation.

 _'Okay,'_ I thought, _'I can experiment with my more asinine ideas late, for now let's just get a good score on this test.'_

With that I stepped forward and asked, "May I go first?"

Galene, seeming to be excepting a question like this, said, "We normally go in alphabetical order because it's not often that new applicants like going first, but if you would like to, you may."

I smiled at her and stepped forward into the circle. I did some quick stretches before I stepped up to the bar reached down and picked it up.

"When you are ready state your full name loudly and clearly and then say test start," Galene told me.

I took a deep breath and held it for ten seconds before letting it out. I closed my eyes and cleared my mind as I began focusing on my demigod powers. I could feel the moisture in the air. I saw a clear picture of it in my mind as it was blown around by the air conditioner. As it was stopped by the people and objects and the walls in the room, creating a pretty accurate 3D map of the area in my head. This was something I learned to do long ago when Aunt Hestia taught me about the benefits of meditation. The first time I did it I could barely see the area a few feet around me. Now, I could see the entire room and slightly outside it as well.

I focused more and I started feeling the water running through the pipes in the walls, I felt the saliva in the girls' mouths, the small amount of water on their eyes. When I focused more I could feel the blood running through their veins and at that point I suddenly felt like I was standing next to an ocean. I focused my senses on that and found that it was closer to a calm sea then the vast ocean I felt at first. When I focused on it even more I realized it was Galene and I understood what was happening. Galene is the goddess of calm seas so it makes sense that my powers would recognize that.

I let my powers slip as I opened my eyes. I could still feel the moisture in the air, but the presence of the calm sea was gone. I glanced at Galene and inhaled somewhat sharply when I saw her giving off a slight glow. I understood that it was an effect of my powers, the visualization of her connection to the sea, but I wasn't expecting it. The longer my focused on my powers were let up, the less Galene glowed, until the glow slipped away all together. I could still feel the moisture in the air and knew what to do.

I took a deep breath and said, "Perseus Jackson, test start."

Almost immediately the pole started getting heavier. For a while it wasn't very difficult, but as time passed it started getting harder and harder to keep the pole in my hands. When it got to the point that it felt almost impossible to hold up I put my plan into place. I focused as well as I could and slowly pulled the moisture out of the air around me. It was water in its purest state and with a little manipulation was completely invisible to the naked eye. It wasn't a lot of water, but it was enough for my plan. I moved it around the bar and around my forearms. Then I told the hold the weight for me. Slowly I felt the strain slip away until it became relatively easy to hold the bar up.

It didn't last forever, mind you, as there was only a small amount of water holding the bar up, but it was enough drastically increase my score. By the time the bar touched the ground the screen in front of me read **250** **lb**. I breathed heavily as I let the water disperse back into the air and took a few moments to collect myself. When I looked to the others I wasn't surprised to see shock on their faces.

I smiled at Galene and said in a deservedly cocky tone, "What's next?"

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **A/N: I didn't really want to end it here because I had the entire test planned out, but I decided to end it here as the chapter was getting pretty long. Next chapter will finish up the physical tests, educational tests, the school system will be explained slight and that's what I have planned for now, depending on how long that is I add more than that.**

 **Okay, a lot of this came out of thin air here and believe it or not my original concept was just: Percy's powers are stronger. But that led to the question: Why are they stronger? Which led to the decision that they would be advancing really quickly, which led to the question: Why would they advance quickly? Which led to the thought: Gods mature really quickly, I wonder why that is? Which led to the Blessing of the Immortals idea. Which led to this.**

 **Update periods will be pretty long, sorry about that, but I don't have a lot of time to write, I also have two other fics that I'm working on. One for My Hero Academia (Which already has a chapter up that you might like) and the other is a Naruto story I'm still working on. All that together means I can't get chapters out really quickly. And if you look at my My Hero fic you'll see that I haven't updated that in months which happened because a lot of personal stuff came up that kept me from writing and when I finally got back in the head space for writing I couldn't get this idea or the Naruto fic out of my mind. Either way I'll be working on all three of these fics as inspiration for each comes to me.**

 **Well anyways, thanks for reading and if you got the pseudo X-Men reference you're great.**


	2. The School

**A/N: Time for another chapter!**

 **Questions I'd like answered in a review if you wouldn't mind:**

 **How much of Percy's schooling to you want to see? Do you want a year of the school then a quick glimpse at everything else until he goes to camp half blood or do you want every year written out?**

 **What pairing/s would you like in the future?**

 **Harem or no harem?**

 **What pairings would you dislike?**

 **What do you think of the concept?**

 **Do you have any ideas for Percy's powers?**

 **Do you have any questions for me?**

 **If you wouldn't mind answering those questions in a review it would be very appreciated. Please and thank you.**

 **Now into the PJ goodness.**

 **Chapter 2: The School**

 _Last time:_ _By the time the bar touched the ground the screen in front of me read_ _ **250**_ _ **lb**_ _. I breathed heavily as I let the water disperse back into the air and took a few moments to collect myself. When I looked to the others I wasn't surprised to see shock on their faces._

 _I smiled at Galene and said in a deservedly cocky tone, "What's next?"_

 **[Galene's POV]**

 _Brrrrrr...Brrrrrr...Brrrrrr…Brrr-ztt._

 _Ugh…_ I thought as I reached over and smacked my alarm clock. I glanced at my alarm clock that read **5:00** am and laid on my stomach for a second, not wanting to get up and cursing the fact minor gods need sleep before I remembered what day it was. I jumped out of bed and ran towards the bathroom with a large smile on my face. Today's testing day!

Testing day is always a great day. All those new faces wishing to get it in. People facing their dreams with smiles on their faces. Sure, most of them will leave in sadness because they're not up to snuff, but they still reached for their dreams and that's the important part. The students that do make it in will undoubtedly be jumping with joy which often brings a smile to my face.

And then there's the secret exam. I can still remember the joy I felt from Lady Athena's praise of my mist layer idea. She was so very happy we had a way to find demigods without the use of our godly senses. They're not one hundred percent accurate with the rather weak demigods not giving off very strong auras or smells and we had no way of finding clear sighted mortals.

And speaking of Lady Athena, she's always very happy on testing day. It's the day she can discover more intelligent people to cultivate into geniuses. Sure, she may be leading many of the men to a point she sees them as a respectable father for her children, but that's her right as an immortal goddess. Even if I don't really understand it, as I haven't met a single graduate from the school who isn't a pompous ass with a superiority complex. She can find her interest in their intelligence alone so whatever.

Regardless, today was the day we'd get new students which I'm always excited for. I was also excited about a few specific applicants. When I went through the applications I saw a number of people that stood out.

Of course, there were the usual stand out applicants with recommendations from high up places because their rich parents spoil them. There were the applicants with ass kissing praise from their old schools because they want to be able to say one of their students got into the school even though the kid wasn't anything special. And of course, the many applications with nothing special about them.

One application that stood out was the one from a young girl named Theta Atlan who lived on some small farm. Her essay prompt for the application was a question on a project she'd worked on in the past. She submitted a hand-written twelve-page essay on how she designed a complex irrigation system for her family's farm. She included all the designs she made for the system, all the calculations she made for the system and a log of the time she spent on the project. It was an amazing feat that, while not perfect, was very well done.

Another standout applicant was the daughter of ASGC alumni, Frederick Chase, Annabeth. She was already confirmed to be Athena's' daughter, as all of Athena's children are claimed at birth, so her entrance into the school was already approved, like all demigods, but being a child of Athena painted an expectation of excellence on her head.

The last one that really stuck out was an application by a boy named Percy Jackson. What first stuck out was his physical information. According to the file he was six years old, but his height, weight, and physical appearance were closer to that of a seven-year-old. I thought it might be a mistake, but when I checked his school files his age was confirmed to be six. That could be filed away as quick maturation and had little to do with his academic qualifications so I put it aside. Reading further into his file I started suspecting his intelligence was being overstated by his school. It wasn't likely a six-year-old would be working at such an advanced level as they would have me believe.

My thoughts were disproved as I got further into the file. There were a bunch of papers in a separate folder with a note on the front that said 'The proof you'll probably want,' in very neat handwriting. There first few papers were the results of an IQ test every child in his school was required to take that estimated his IQ to be well over genius level. There were results to an aptitude test, also delivered by his school, that placed him well off the scale compared to his peers. There were a few more test scores all placing him many times above his peers as well. The kid was a genius amongst geniuses if his test scores were anything to go by.

And that's putting aside the last thing in the folder, which was a sketchbook. I opened it up and a piece of paper fell out. Picking it up I realized it was a letter from the kid that basically said 'I also like art.' I smiled at that, knowing how much Lady Athena loved those who practiced the arts, and was excited to see what Percy had to show. I wasn't expecting much, which in hindsight is odd because of his clear intelligence, so when I turned to the first page and found a highly detailed drawing of a seascape I was admittedly shocked. It was very well done, with tons of small details that were easily missed without close inspection that, while not necessary, brought the entire picture together with a feeling of completeness. I was shocked at the skill shown on the page and as I flipped through the book and found many more drawings of people, landscapes, and seascapes I was astounded that a six-year-old had such skill. I was hard pressed to believe it, and decided that I would test his ability when I saw him in class, which I undoubtedly would considering his test scores.

Needless to say, I was excited for the day. As I rushed through my morning routine with a smile on my face my mind filled with thoughts of the test.

After showering, getting dressed, eating some eggs and toast, and making sure I had all I needed for the day I picked up all my things before focusing on my classroom. A bright flash of light later I was standing in front of my desk with a smile on my face. I placed my things down on my desk as I walked towards the door of the classroom. As I passed through the door my smile grew slightly as I thought of my next destination. I walked briskly through the halls, enjoying the peace and quiet of the empty school before it was flooded with children.

When I reached the door with the large 'Do Not Enter' sign I frowned at the reminder that Lady Athena can't interact with the students as much as she'd like. I knocked on the door and when I heard a faint, 'Enter' from the other side I pushed the door open and walked inside.

Lady Athena was facing away from me, looking out a window behind her desk. I walked up to her desk and stood still as I waited to be addressed by the Olympian.

Without turning around, she said, "It's testing day, Galene."

I could hear the smile in her voice which in turn made me smile.

"It is malady. I take it your excited?" I asked.

"Of course," she said pleasantly before turning around walking to her desk and taking a seat. She gave a gesture to the chair in front of her desk before saying, "Take a seat." I smiled at her as I took my seat. I sat quietly admiring her beauty as I waited for her to speak first, knowing she'd prefer to do so.

After a few moments of her staring at me and I staring back she leaned back in her chair and said, "Tell me about the new applicants."

I smiled as I looked into her stunning gray eyes and said, "Other than the standard rich kids, and the few kids with letters from their schools praising them like the gods, there are three applicants that really stand out. One is a girl named Theta Atlan who wrote an amazingly constructed essay on an irrigation system she designed for her family's farm. Another is the daughter of Frederick Chase, your daughter. And the last is a young boy named Percy. The test scores he submitted paint him out to be the smartest kid I've ever seen apply to this school. Along with that he submitted a sketchbook and if the stuff inside was actually done by him I wouldn't be surprised if he was the son of an art deity."

Athena looked at me with an intrigued look on her face as she leaned forward slightly and said, "Would you mind if I saw it?"

I shook my head and said, "Of course not, Lady Athena," as I held my hand out in front of me before focusing on the sketchbook in my mind. After a second the book appeared in my hand and I leaned forward slightly to hand it to her. She leaned forward and grabbed it before returning to her previous position with the book in her hands.

I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't expecting very much, so I was slightly amused when she flipped to the first page and a look of shock came to her face. As she turned through the pages I watched her reactions and she eventually stopped, and closed the sketchbook before placing it on her desk while saying, "If this Percy is actually the one who drew these pictures, then I want him immediately accepted into this school and allowed into Téchni house. I don't care if he's the dumbest kid to ever walk these halls, with skills like this I could craft the most artistically talented mortal to ever walk this earth. I have to have him in my school."

I stared slack jawed at Lady Athena for a while before asking hesitantly, "Are you sure, Lady Athena? Téchni house has only allowed entrance to third years and above since its creation. And even so, what are the odds he actually drew these pictures? It was probably someone he knew who put them in there to boost his application, right?"

"Tell, me. Did his file have any mention of his family?" She asked me.

I was caught off guard, not particularly seeing the connection, but answered anyways with, "Yes. It said he's an only child. His mother's an aspiring author who's currently working at a small candy shop. With no mentions of connection to her extended family if she has any. It also said his father hasn't been around since his birth because of "work reasons" and that they have no contact with his father's family."

"That's what I thought…" she said before trailing off at the end.

I was waiting for an explanation on what she apparently thought, but when none was forthcoming I daringly asked, "Excuse, M'lady. I don't quite understand."

She looked at me before saying, "No, I don't suppose you would," before pausing to collect her thoughts and continuing with, "A power very few know I have is the ability to feel the emotion of the creator of any piece of art. I feel all emotions felt by the artist towards the artwork when I look at said artwork. In this sketch book there are lots of pictures of many different people and places and no two pictures are the same, but there is an exception. Four pictures of a woman. In each picture she's doing different things and, in each picture, I felt a strong sense of familial love towards the subject in the picture. This could be explained if he had an older sibling or another family member who would also feel that sort of love towards said woman, but Percy has no one like that which suggests he's the one who drew it. And then there's these seascapes and ocean scenes. I feel a multitude of things from those as well. There's love in them, but more the love one has for an object, like my love of books. That can be associated with a general love of the sea that can belong to anyone. What I also sense from these drawings is a large feeling of longing. The kind one would normally associate with a child longing for a parent, which also suggests it was Percy as he's never known his father. Why he'd associate the ocean with feelings of his father is a mystery for now. I believe it is very possible this Percy is the one who drew these pictures which means I want him in my school. And the Téchni house year restriction is only because we haven't had anyone but those in third year and above qualify for entrance to the house. And either way this is all conjecture until we have proof of his skills. We can test that after the special examination of he's willing to stay until then and agrees to said testing. For now, all we can do is prepare for the test and look forward to this new group of kids to mold. I believe it is time for you to go, but before you leave can I have Percy's file? I am very… interested in his development."

I stared at her for a second before shrugging, focusing on the file, and, when I felt its weight in my hand, handing said file to her. I smiled at her before I stood up and said, "I will see you after the tests are over, Lady Athena." I bowed slightly and left the room.

As I walked through the door I heard her say, "Yes, he will be perfect for me." I shuddered slightly at the thought she'd be grooming another mortal to have her child.

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **[A few hours later]**

A took a deep breath and held it as I stared at the door to my classroom. Inside were more than a hundred children with dreams of attending the school I instruct at. More than a hundred students who I would potentially instruct in the following years. When I felt collected I let my breath out. I put a serious look on my face, focused on my godly senses then pushed the door open.

As I walked through the door my godly senses were assaulted by a barrage of smells. At first, I could only smell the musty scent gods associate with mortals, but as I walked through the room I started picking up on more. The first was a smell I associate with old books. A familiar` smell to the faculty and students of this school and a smell I associate with our headmistress. So, when I glanced towards the source of the smell and saw a young girl with blonde hair and striking gray eyes I knew I'd found Athena's daughter.

The second sent I was much less familiar with. It was a soft scent of grain in the air. It was pleasant and reminded me of the goddess Demeter, but only slightly. When I looked towards its source I recognized, from her applications picture, the girl named Theta. ' _So, she's a demigod,'_ I thought _, 'Probably to some farm deity.'_

The last smell almost stopped me in my place. A smell I was very familiar with, as I have spent much of my life around people with a similar smell. It smelled like the ocean. And yet it was different. I have spent a lot of time around those from the sea. My family, going back to primordial god of the sea, Pontus, has always been from the sea and yet, in all my immortal life, I have only met one other person with such a smell, my cousin, Poseidon.

With that thought in mind, once I reached the front of the room, I faced the class and then scanned the room for the source of the smell. Once I found it I found myself staring for a second longer then I should so I forced myself to continue scanning the room. While I did so my mind was running a mile a minute thinking of what I just saw. ' _That was Percy,_ I thought, ' _Why does he smell like Poseidon? Is he his son? He does apparently love the ocean and he doesn't have a father, so it's possible. But the big three were supposed to give up demigods! Dammit, Poseidon. Why couldn't you keep it in your pants? I wonder what Lady Athena will think. Will she hold a grudge against him because of his father? I'd like to think she's not that petty, but she can take her grudge pretty far, so… Ugh, what will I do?_

I took a second to collect myself mentally before looking to the class and saying in as calm a tone as I could muster with my mind in such a state, "Hello everyone. My name is Galene and-,"

"No way!"

Only to be interrupted.

I looked over to the source of the voice and was a little shocked to see the source was Percy. Nevertheless, I looked at him and said, "I'm sorry, is there a problem?"

He had the decency to look sheepish as he said, "Sorry. Galene is just the name of one of my favorite Greek goddesses. I didn't mean to sound out. It won't happen again."

I was shocked by that, to say the least. No one has ever heard of me before! They only ever care about the famous nereids like that stuck up bitch, Amphitrite. And I'm one of his favorites? I can't wait to have him in class.

I did my best to not let the excitement show on my face as I looked at him and said, "Very well. As I was saying, I will be your room monitor today. I will be making sure no one cheats, and I will also be here if anyone has any questions."

As I finished the door to the classroom opened and Anna the harpy flew in.

"This is Anna, I said, "She will hand out your test packets. When you receive yours, place it in front of you and wait for further instructions."

As I said this Anna hovered around the room. I followed her with my eyes, taking stock in her reactions to people. I didn't expect to see much since Anna doesn't care about mortals and even most demigods don't garner any reaction from her. So, when she stared at Percy for a few seconds longer than necessary, I was intrigued. What about Percy garnered her attention? It could be his scent, as children of the big three often smell many times more alluring then other demigods, but she hadn't had that reaction with other demigods of the big three that have been at are school so that was most likely not the case. Whatever it was I didn't think I'd find out because Anna doesn't talk much and I doubt Percy would know even if I did ask him. Lady Athena might, but that's not a guarantee.

I continued watching Anna, and like normal no one else received anything but indifference from the quiet harpy. When Anna finished she flew up the front of the classroom and perched herself on the side of my desk.

I looked towards the class and said, "Now that everyone had a packet, I want you to open and remove their contents when I say so. Inside you will find a sealed test booklet, an answer sheet, and a directions card. I want you to read and follow the instructions on the directions card to the tee. Do exactly what is on the card no matter what it says. Now, you may begin."

The second I said begin the children excitedly [nervously] tore open their test booklets. I watched them pull out their materials and carefully look over everything before picking up the directions card and carefully reading their instructions. As expected most of them read the instructions for a minute or two before getting to work. What I was interested in was the kids that starred at the instructions for much longer than the other kids. Percy, Annabeth, and Theta.

As I looked around the room I discreetly glanced at them a few times. Theta seemed to be the first to make her decision. She put her stuff down, leaned forward and appeared to be taking a nap. Annabeth was next and she pulled out some paper and a pencil and started writing something. The last was Percy, the demigod I was most interested in. His application was the most impressive of the ones that made it to me, and he's a demigod, probably Poseidon's too. I found myself looking in his direction much more than the other two demigods.

Percy put his letter down and then sat there for a few seconds. I was beginning to think that's all he was going to do, when he opened his desk and pulled out some paper, pencils, and a water bottle.

He picked up the water bottle and stared at it for a while before looking around the room. I felt a small blush grace my cheeks when he caught me staring at him, but suppressed it shortly after. A second later he put the bottle down before a smile came to his face.

At this point I started walking around the room. I glanced at him and saw him staring at me for a second before he returned to his paper. I decided to figure that out later and I resumed my stroll around the room watching the children's progress on their tests. I said I was looking for cheaters, but in all actuality, I wasn't. But Anna was. She has great eyesight and an ability to detect dishonesty which helpfully extends to academic dishonesty with a little help from Lady Athena's magic, so she can feel when someone in the room is cheating. She'll mark down their name and then they'll be penalized when it comes time for the acceptance process.

So, I'm only here to answer any questions the children might have and to administer the special acceptance test. Neither thing is much work so I don't have very much to do on testing day until the acceptance process begins. The acceptance process is simple. Me and the rest of Athena's advisors gather in Athena's office and discuss the applicants. The final decision of acceptance is up to Athena.

The hours passed by slowly as I prowled through the rows of children. From looking over the kids shoulders I could tell this wasn't the smartest group of kids we've had. Sure, there were some kids that seemed to be on track to get a passing score, but I haven't seen anyone that will pass with anything above an average score. Not to mention the many kids I saw that would most likely fail the test. The three applicants I was looking forward to overseeing were apparently demigods so I lost that bit of fun and everyone else seemed to be barely adequate at best and dumb as hell at worst.

I was doing my best to avoid Percy as I had noticed he was drawing something the first time I passed by and didn't want to see anything until it was finished. But as I saw Percy put down his pencil and stretch slightly I made my way over to his desk. I stopped right next to him and even though I was being watched by an applicant I couldn't help but stare in shock at what I was seeing. It was a perfectly done picture of me. Done completely in a number 2 pencil in only four hours was a drawing of me that would make even some professionals envious of his skill. But even the incredible detail of the drawing wasn't what shocked me the most. No, I was in shock because of what the drawing was of. It was me, but it was me without my mist cloak. Somehow this demigod saw through my mist cloak and for some reason didn't seem shocked. I shook off my shock before looking at him as I contemplated the possibility that he knew of the mythical world. I eventually gave up on that line of questioning and figured I could question him later.

I walked to the front of the room and glanced at the clock before turning to the class and saying in a sturdy tone, "Your time is up. Please place your pencils on your desks and follow the post testing directions you were given on your instructions card."

After I said that I waited about a minute to make sure no one had any questions before walking out the classroom door. I made my ways through the halls until I made it to Athena's office. I knocked on the door and when the faint, 'Enter' came from the other side I pushed the door open and walked into the office. I found Athena sitting behind her desk staring at me as I walked up to her desk and stood waiting to be addressed. When she motioned for me to take a seat I did and waited for her questions.

"How'd the test go?" she asked after staring at me for a few seconds.

"About as well as can be expected. Anna caught a few cheaters who were marked down. Other than that, none of the students actually taking the test seemed to stand out as anything special," I answered.

"What of the three applicants you thought stood out?" Athena asked.

"Demigods. All three. The Annabeth girl smelled like you, the Atlan child smelled like grains, and Percy smelled like…" my voice tapered off at the end, not really wanting to let Lady Athena know about Percy's probable father. I rather like Percy from what I know of him. He's smart, artistic, and apparently the demigod Prince of the sea. I don't want Lady Athena's grudge to keep him from coming to this school.

Either way I must answer any questions Lady Athena asks so when the words, "I'm sorry can you repeat that?" came from Lady Athena's lips I knew I couldn't keep it from her.

I avoided eye contact as best I could as I said, "He smells like Poseidon."

"Oh…" I heard Athena say. I risked looking up at her and was surprised to find a contemplating look on her face, instead of the annoyed or angry look I expected.

I risked asking a question as the words, "What are you thinking, M'Lady?" slipped through my lips.

She stared into my eyes for a few seconds before reaching into one of her desk drawers and pulling out a file which I correctly assumed to be Percy's file.

"You've read this, correct?" I nodded as an answer and she continued with, "Percy is definitely the smartest kid to have ever applied to this school. Add on to that his apparent artistic talent that is greater than many adult artists I've seen and I would be a complete moron to not let Percy in. I hate that bastard Poseidon for flooding Athens. For a long time I've tried to forgive him for what he did, but every time I look at him all I can hear are the screams of my people as they were washed away by Poseidon. They chose me over him and I could do nothing to protect them… The few of his children I have had apply to my school in the past were immediately rejected because they reminded me of him. This time the kid's a guaranteed genius and I… I don't know what to do." She opened up the folder in front of her and stared at Percy's photo for a while before saying, "I look at this photo and I can see the same black hair and the same sea green eyes and yet I feel none of the hatred I feel towards Poseidon. All I see is a kid who I can sculpt into perfection, so my decision stands. He's already been accepted into Techni house and depending on the score he gets on the demigod exams he might be accepted into the others as well. It will take me awhile to see him as his own person instead of his father, but… I believe I will. As for his heritage we'll keep it to ourselves for now, Zeus would probably kill him if he found out which would be unfortunate. For now, I think it's time for you to go test your new students. I wish to be alone for a while."

I stared at her for a few seconds before nodding, standing up, and leaving the room. As I walked towards my classroom I couldn't help but to think of that conversation. I've always known she didn't like Poseidon, but I always played it off as a petty grudge she couldn't let go of, but I never thought it affected her this much. This is the first time she's even confided in me in such a way. It's also the first time I saw that look on her face, like she just watched someone shoot her puppy. At least I can find solace in the fact she is accepting Percy into this school.

I eventually made it back to my classroom and stared at the door before I opened the door looked towards the three demigods and said, "Follow me please." I watched as they looked at each other with questioning looks before shrugging off their confusion, standing up and following me as I turned around and walked into the hallway. I lead them through the halls with thoughts of Athena still on my mind. As we walked I looked over my shoulder at the three and said, "Because you three have met the requirements for the special exam you have automatically been accepted into the school. You will be placed into housing with the others who met the requirements this year and the years before this. Unlike the other houses in the school you will not attend classes with your housemates, instead the exam you are about to take will determine which house or houses you take classes with. There is one exception to this rule, however, which will be explained at a later date. Everything you need to know about the school system will be explained at a later date, for now you should worry only about the exam you are about to take."

With that we walked through the gymnasium doors. I walked them to the other side of the gym and pointed to a door. "In through there," I said, "Are the changing rooms. You will find proper clothes waiting for you. Put it on before returning here, leave your things in a locker. Girls to the left, boys to the right. Haste would be appreciated." I watched them walk through the doors before returning to my thoughts.

 _How is Lady Athena doing? Is she alright? Is she crying right now? No, that's absurd. She never cries. But I've also never seen her so distraught… I hope she's okay, but I think having Percy here might help her a bit. At least I hope so. Hmm, I wonder how those three are going to do. I don't expect much on the physical tests, probably above average at best and mediocre at worst. Although, Percy is very developed for a kid his age, even for a demigod. Maybe he'll do pretty well. I have no doubt they'll do great on the academic part, especially Percy if his previous test scores are anything to go off. I'm particularly looking forwards to seeing their scores on the mythology part. If Percy knew my name from that one mention by Hesiod then I don't doubt he'll do great on it, but the other two? Well, Annabeth's father is an alumnus, so it's possible he taught her about some of it. Theta… I'm not too sure on. But what I'm really excited for is the adequact test. Ooh I wonder what powers they'll have. Oh yeah! I have to thank Hephaestus for the gear for the physical tests and the adequacy machine._

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening in front of me. The three demigods walked through and I smiled when I saw Percy holding the door open for the other two. " _A nice kid at least."_

"Okay. We will start with some physical aptitude tests. This will be a series of test to gage your physical abilities in the following areas: strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility. We will start with a strength test. Please follow me." I said once the kids stopped in front of me.

I brought them over to the weight circle before stopping and giving them a second to look at the circle before saying, "This test is simple. Walk over and pick up the bar. You may use any means necessary to do so as long as you stay in that circle. The bar will get progressively heavier as time moves on. The moment the bar touches the ground your score will be set and the test will be over. Your results will be displayed here."

The kids looked like they had a thousand questions going through their heads, even though i probably wouldn't answer most of them. After a few seconds Percy stepped forwards and said, "Will we ever do these tests again?"

I stared at him for a second before saying, "Yes," with zero explanation.

They continued thinking for a few more seconds before Percy stepped forward and said, "May I go first?"

I was expecting some question along those lines so my answer was immediate. "We normally go in alphabetical order because it's not often that new applicants like going first, but if you would like to, you may."

He smiled at me then stepped into the circle and did some quick stretches, before stepping up to the bar, reaching down and picking it up,

"When you are ready state your full name loudly and clearly and then say test start," I informed him.

I then watched as he took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before he closed eyes and seemed to focus. After a second of watching him something started to tingle in my mind. The part of me that zones in on sources of water suddenly started going off and i realized it was somehow because of Percy! It felt like an entire lake was jammed into the small space he occupied and i was mystified. As the seconds passed the sensation only grew until it felt like there was an entire ocean in front of me! When I focused on my godly senses Percy actually giving off a bright sea green glow and I realized it was him using his powers somehow. A few more seconds passed and I felt the power begin to wane until it was almost gone.

Percy opened his eyes and glanced at us and I saw him take a sharp intake of breath when he saw me which i guessed was him seeing my connection of the sea. A few more seconds passed before he stopped staring at me and looked towards the bar in his hands. He took a deep breath and said, "Perseus Jackson, test start."

I watched as the bar in his hands started being pulled towards the ground and the muscles in his arms strained. When it looked like he was about to drop the bar, though, the muscles in his arms suddenly went slack, but the bar didn't move at all. It stayed in the air and it was quite a while before it actually looked like he was holding any weight at all. When i focused on my powers i could tell he had surrounded his arms and the bar in a invisible coat of water and was using it to lift the bar! An ingenious idea if I've ever seen one. Eventually the bar touched the ground the screen in front of him read **250** **lb**. He gave a few heavy breaths and took a few moments to collect himself before turning to us to see all three of us with shocked looks on our faces.

He smiled at me and said in a deservedly cocky tone, "What's next?"

For a few moments the room was silent as we stared at him and tried to come to terms with what we just saw. The two girls shocked at the show of strength and i shocked of the use of his powers. Eventually the silence was broken as the two girls beside me jumped in the air with twins exclamations of, "Amazing!" The ran at him and stopped in front of him before hounding him on how the hell he could lift something that heavy. I was also curious to know whether he'd lie about the use of his powers or not and was a little disappointed when all he said was, "I workout a lot," as if working out could let a six year old lift something five times his weight. The two girls were a little skeptical before they just shrugged it off as if that could actually happen. ' _Is he trying to hide his powers?'_ I wondered before calling order and getting the three back to business.

The girls then both did the test and were significantly quicker at it, finishing in only a minute or two each with scores around twenty pounds. Not bad, but definitely not great. Then we moved on to the long jump portion. Percy again asked to go first, and i let him. I watched as his powers swelled, to a lesser extent than before, before he jumped. He used some invisible water to launch from his spot and then propel himself further than he would normally go otherwise finishing with a score of seven feet. Above average for an adult and excellent for a child his age. The girls scores were again of around average quality with scores around two to three feet. The following testa all went about the same. Percy used his power's in some way that made his scores amazongly high and the girls scores were about average. At the pull up test Percy used a sheet of water under his feet to push him upwards making the test exceesingly easy for him to the point I had to stop him he was taking so long. On the endurance tests Percy filled his lungs with water instead of air lengthening his endurance a great deal. On the speed test in which the students run on a treadmill with no max speed he again used water as a propelent as well as a way to reduce the friction between his shoes and the ground. And on the final test, the punching machine for whatever reason Lady Athena requires this test, he somehow released a shockwave from his fist that increased his score ten fold.

His scores were off the chart for most applicants and he'd probably get a spot in one of the strength houses because of it. The two girls were a slightly above average, but from the exausted looks on their faces compared to Percy's energetic look I'd say they weren't use to such strenuous work.

With a smile I turned to them and said, "You three did very well, especially you Percy. If I hadnt seen it with my own eyes I'd think it impossible. Now,you three may go change and I will take you to the area for the written portion." The three walked away, talking about what they'd just done with smiles on their face. They werent done in the locker rooms long and quickly returned, eager to continue. I smiled as I motioned for them to follow and brought them to the nearest test sight.

"This test is very similar to the normal test given, but there are a few key changes in the history section and a few others sprinkled throughout the other sections as well," as I spoke I handed each student their test and an answer sheet, "You may write in the test booklets, but all answers must be recorded on the answer sheet. Now you may begin."

The next few hours flew by pretty quickly. I watched them as the went through the packets and wasnt surprised to see Percy flying through it. It was designed to test advanced six year olds but Percy was already working at near teenage level so all the information wouldnt be anything he hadnt seen and mastered before. I was happy to see, when looking over his shoulder, that he was doing rather well on the Greek 'mythology' section as well. The other two students seemed to be making easy work of the test as wall, although not as quickly as Percy they were moving pretty fast. Percy finished in about two hours, with the other two finishing about an hour after him.

When they finished I smiled and said, "Very good, we have one more test to take. This one will be much easier than the last two. Follow me and put your tests and amswer sheets on the desk as you past it." With that I turned and walked out of the room. I heard their quiet footsteps behind me and knew they were following. I led them through the building, out into the rear field and into the adequacy chamber.

"This," i said as I showed them the chamber and the machine at its center, "Is the adequacy machine. Its purpise will be explained to you once school starts. Only those that have qualified for the special examination may use this machine and then only under the supervision of one qualified to work the machine." The machine itself didnt look very complicated. It was a large chamber in the center of the room connected to a control pannel to its right side.

"When it is your turn, you will go into that room over there and put on the provided clothing then come out and step into this chamber. First up, because he was so enthusiastic earlier, will be Percy." Percy smiled at the chance to go first then rushed into the changing room. He came out a few minutes later in nothing but a small pair of boxer briefs. He walked to the center of the room and stepped into the chamber. I walked up in front of him and said, "Okay, I'm going to attach these wires to diffrent parts of your body and then I'm going to close the door and start the test. This feels differently for all who use it, but no one has said it's painful so you have nothing to fear."

He smiled at me and said, "Thank you," as I began attaching the wires to his body. As I placed them acrpos his body I was somewhat surpised to a large deal of muscle in his frame. I had thought his phenomenal scores on the physical exam had been entirely do to his power's, but it would seem he would have done quite well even without them. Four wires were placed on both arms, one on the back of both hands, four on both legs, one on the top of either foot, one on both pecs, one on his stomach, one over where either lung reside, six running up his spine, one on both love handles, and then one on either temple. He seemed a bit confused at the number of wires but I just waved it off and closed the door to the glass chamber before taking a seat in front of the control panel.

When i said you had to be qualified to work the machine i was lieing, there was a single button to press because Hephestaus wanted to make it as simple as possible. When Percy gave me a thumbs up I pressed the button. Immediately the machine came to life in a barrage of bright flashing colors. The colors belonged to the energy that was being pumped into Percy's body. The adequacy machine works by pumping a simulated form of different godly energies into the person's body and judging how they react. I watched the screen as the different energies flowed into him.

The readings were silent in most areas. But I was surprised at how high they were in others. There was the normal quivkened reflexes and Greek hardwired brain all demigods have, but he also had somesort of major fire resistance on the level of some Cyclops, increased mental development that put most of Lady Athena's kids to shame, phenomenal control over earthquakes never seen at such a level in a child of Poseidon, an ability to speak with equestrian and sea life, and his control of water's at such a high level it had evolved into liquid control instead of water control. A child had _never_ displayed such results at such a young age. Development of demigod powers has been known to continue growing well into adulthood with some demigods still developing new powers into their forties and fifties, so if he's at this level now he'll be godlike by then. Lady Athena will definitely want to know about this.

When the machine powered down I opened the chamber and got Percy disconnected before instucting him change back into his old clothes. After Percy it was Annabeths turn. Her results werent very special compared to Percy's. Along with the typical demigod readings was increased mental development, but to a lesser degree than Percy's, an ability to quickly assess a situation and plan out the best course of action, and an increased abilty at the arts. All typical aigns of a child of Athena. After her was Theta. Typical demigod signs aside, she showed a connection to farmed plants like corn which was odd but not unique to her, and an connection to soil. Her readings suggested a connection to some sort of farm deity.

"Okay that'll be the last of the tests for today. You'll get a letter in the mail in the next few weeks with school information. For now go home and enjoy the rest of your summer breaks, your guardians are waiting for you at the front of the school." With that i watched them smile and say thanl you before heading towards the front of the school. I sighed as i collected the results of their adequacy tests and walked towards the room we had been in earlier. I collected their test booklets before heading to the gymnasium office and printing the results to their physical tests. It had been a long day and i was ready to go home. Tomorrow we will go over all the applicants results and determine who'll get in and which houses they'll be in. I walked to my office and stored away the paperwork in my arms before flashing home, eating dinner, and flopping into bed.

-LINE CUT-

 **[8 am Next day]**

I was sitting in Lady Athena's meeting room waiting for the rest of the school's staff as the rest of the school's staff filtered in for the selection process. We would go over every applicant that scored at least an average score on the test and deciding who we will and will not let in. It wasn't very fun and the only part i actually looked forward to was when we finished the normal applicants and got to the special examination. Once everyone was seated I looked to Lady Athena and waited for her to speak.

"I believe," she said after a few seconds, "That I wish to skip the mundane selections for now and move on to the special applicants for now." She looked to me and I smiled before standing up.

"Of course, Lady Athena. We had four applicants qualify for special admissions. Three of them are demigod who took the test yesterday and the fourth is a clear sighted girl named Rachel Dare." I grabbed some papers from a file in front of me and passed then around the table. "Rachel was discovered by a centaur that accidently scared her in central park. She's not a natural born genius, but she's been seeing tutors sense she could talk and I believe she'd make it in this school even if she wasn't clear sighted. She also, apparently, has an interest in art but hasn't been allowed to pursue it. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, is there anything special about her but her eyes?" asked Cecrops rather bluntly.

"She is pretty smart, but about average for a kid her age at this school. Other than that I's day nothing really stands out. I recommend she be put in the mid level new student group."

"Then unless there's any more question or any of the house leaders would like to have her," Lady Athena said before pausing to see if any of them would say anything and continued when none did, "She'll attend classes with Messaío house, and we can move on."

"Of course, Lady Athena. Theta Atlan is a demigod of some farm god. She showed no particular prowess in the physical test, but she had a great score on the writing test. She had particularly high scores on the math and history sections, although she showed little knowledge of Greek "myths". When given the adequacy test it showed a control over farmed goods like corn, and some connection to soil. I recommend she take classes with the high level new students, but i don't think she'd perform particularly well in any house, other than perhaps Agroktima house."

There were no questions, I did get a few odd looks at the controlling corn bit, and the Agroktima house head requested an audience with the girl. Finally Lady Athena assigned her Ypsilos house classes with an audience with the Agroktima house head.

"Annabeth Chase, is both the daughter of an alumnus and Lady Athena's daughter," a few people glanced at Lady Athena, but no one said anything so I continued. "Her written test scores were especially high and she showed an above average knowledge of Greek "mythology". Her physical tests weren't anything special, like the Atlan girl and her adequacy test showed increased intelligence, skill in the arts, and situational anaylisis, the normal abilities of Lady Athena's children. I suggest she take high level first year classes and be given audience with the Taktiki house head."

There was some talk of Frederick Chase, mostly about how much of a dick he was as a student, and the Taktiki house leader said she'd like to speak with Annabeth. Athena eventually assigned Annabeth Ypsilos house classes with an audience with Taktiki house head.

Finally it was the moment i was somewhat dreading. Lady Athena might be allowing Percy in the school but she still didn't much like talking about him or more precisely his father so this conversation's going to be a bit awkward.

"The last demigod is a boy named Percy Jackson. He is a genius like no other I have seen at this school. He's six years old, but already works at a near teenage level, his iq is beyond genius level, and he got a perfect score on the written test." I handed around the test scores for the written test and the physical test. "His scores on the physical tests are also amazing and this," I said as I placed his sketch booklet on the table, "Is the artwork he submitted with his application." I watched them pass around the sketchbook, everyone adopting a look of shock when they looked inside.

"This obviously isnt his, right?" asked Nike the Techni house head.

"I understand why you'd think so, but I assure you this is his. In the four hours he had to wait during the normal test he drew an almost perfect picture of me with a number 2 pencil, the boy's skilled."

I watched the room and everyone stared at me in shock before Cercrops, who gives no shits, raised his hand and said, "What of the adequacy test?"

"Well thats the thing. Percy is a… son of Poseidon." There were a few gasps and even more glances towards Lady Athena but she just ignored them as she stared at me. I smiled at her before turning back to the group and saying, "Along with the average demigood traits he has a resistance to fire on par with most Cyclops, an ability to talk to horses and sea life, an unheard of level of control over earthquakes, increased mental development greater than most of Lady Athena's children, and his water control has evolved into general liquid control. He is literally the strongest demigod to ever appear at this school. I believe he should attend classes with the fourth year upper level students and be given immediate admittance into Techni house classes." They all stared at me for a second before turning to Lady Athena.

She looked back for a second before saying, "I have always kicked _his_ children out immediately, but they've also always been unintelligent fool's so it was easy. Percy Jackson is a genius and I will not allow my hatred of _that man_ to keep him out of this school. I agree that he should be admitted into Techní house. Would any other house heads like an audience with him?" Immediately every house head raised their hands. I smiled at that, expecting it. If they can get Percy to pursue their courses they'll have the smartest kid to ever come to this school in their house. During the house competition that will be a huge advantage. Lady athena smiled as well and said, "Very well. Percy will take courses with the fourth year upper level students and Techni house and will have an audience with every house head and myself. Now, i do believe I will not be needed for the rest. Galene is in charge of final decisions, I'll be in my office."

Everyone stared wide eyed at her as she left. She has never had an audience with an incoming student before, so she must have something important to tell him.

"Okay, that was weird as fuck," said Cecrops.

No one said anything, but we definitely agreed.

-LINE CUT-

 **[Day before; after testing]**

 **[Percy's POV]**

I don't know what the "adequacy machine" was, but it definitely felt weird when we were using it. It felt like my body filled with energy that seemed to saturate my entire being before leaking out. It was both energizing and exhausting at the same time. From the odd looks on their faces i assumed Theta and Annabeth agreed.

"Well that was… interesting?" I said with a smile as we walked towards the front of the school.

"Interesting works as well as any word I think," said Annabeth, "What do you think it did?"

"Well, it took some sort of reading on our physiology if I had to guess. I don't know what though. Either way it'll be explained once the school year starts so we'll have to wait till then for some actual answers."

"Ugh, i know you right but i want to know now," said Theta with a heavy sigh.

I chuckled at that and said, "So your an impatient type, good to know."

Theta looked at me with a slight blush and said, "No! I'm just used to being able to look up anything I want in a book. I'm plenty patient, I am a farmer after all."

I chuckled and said, "Impatience is okay Theta. I'm pretty impatient myself, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

She huffed and mumbled, "I'm not impatient," which succeeded in making Annabeth and I laugh.

It wasn't a long walk and we soon made it to the front of the building to find Aunt Hestia, Theta's mother, and a man I guessed was Annabeth's father. I smiled at Aunt Hestia as we approached the three adults.

"Hey, Aunt Hestia!" I said as I hugged her.

"Hello, Percy. How was your day?"

"It was great! I met some new friends, and we qualified for automatic admission to the school!"

"That's amazing Percy! We'll have to celebrate. Now, say goodbye to your friends. Your mother must be wondering what's taking so long by now."

I smiled at her as I turned to Annabeth and Theta and said, "Hey, I can't wait to go to school with you both. See you then," and then turned and took Aunt Hestia's offered hand.

-LINE CUT-

The rest of summer was pretty nice. Sadly Aunt Hestia couldnt watch me everyday, but Mom found someone else to watch me. Some college student named Jessica willing to watch me for two bucks an hour. She's nice, if a bit condescending. She was working on some work from one of her classes in the living room once and I asked had what it was.

She said it was something called calculus and then explained exactly what she was doing. I asked a lot of questions, which seemed to surprise her a bit, and by the time my mother got home I had a basic understanding of what she was working on. Jessica stared at me with wide eyes as she left the appartment, stealing one last glance at me as she left. I then spent the next half hour laughing. Apparently I like messing with people.

I got a packet from the school a few weeks after the test, like Galene said we would. There were a lot of papers in the packet. A few pamphlets explaining the house system. There are general courses everyone takes, but there are also specialized courses only some can take. You have to get an audience with a house head to even be _considered_ for those courses. I learned that most people had a house they lived and attended most classes with, but they also attended some of the other houses course. There was a small page of information on how my house was exclusive to those recieving special admissions, but little else besides that. What interested me more was the admittance papers. Along with my test scores, which i wasn't surprised to find were all perfect, was a page detailing my adimatance. Along with admittance to the special afmissions house, I was given admission to Techni and Ypsilos house and I was scheduled for audiences with _every_ house head. But what shocked me the most was the auidence I have scheduled with the _headmistress._ You know the headmistress that never takes audience with her students, because she cant take audience with her students because she's a major goddess, you know, _Athena the freaking goddess of wisdom!_

Well, _shoot!_ I knew she was headmistress of the school, but she also barely interacts with the students because of the ancient laws. There should've been _zero_ reason for her to want to speak with me. What could she want? Maybe she found out about father and wants to kill me! Or maybe she was impressed with my sketchbook, she is the goddess of the arts. Or maybe it's just because of my test scores. I don't know, but I really hope she doesn't kill me. That would interfere with my plans to be the greatest demigod ever. How am I supposed to outdo Heracles if I'm dead? I guess I could try escaping the underworld, but where's the fun in that?

*sigh* I really hope she's not going to kill me.

-LINE CUT-

 **A/N: Hello, again. This chapter is** _ **much**_ **shorter than the last one and I'm sorry about that, but I wanted to get a chapter out and thought this would be a good place to end it.**

 **I hope you liked the change of perspective at the start. I was trying to begin the chapter and this idea came to mind, so here yah go.**

 **Next chapter will be out as soon as it's finished.**

 **Any questions, feel free to ask.**

 **See yah next time. Bye.**


	3. As Years Fly By

**A/N: Hey, it's yah boy, Semajvii, back at you with another chapter of Blessing of the Immortals.**

 **I'd like to say sorry it's taken so long to upload. I've been dealing with college stuff and ours made writing difficult.**

 **Other than that it seemed to me, that those who reviewed all wanted to move quickly through the schooling. Which is fine by me so that's what i'm doing.**

 **As for pairings there were a lot of good ideas that i will take into account. I do think I'll be doing a harem, as a few people mentioned it would make sense with Percy's more godly nature. Probably not a very big one though. Although that's subject to change as the characters change and grow throughout the years.**

 **Also, I'll let you know now that pairings will be subject to my owns desires. There are some pairings I lean towards naturally, which will likely affect how I write character interactions.**

 **On another note someone mentioned how they thought Percy would dislike Athena's plans to raise him to be a proper father. Which i totally agree with. Percy would be upset with that… if that were still the case. Naturally with the knowledge that Percy is Poseidon's son, Athena's plan to have children with him has been abandoned. But will that decision be affected upon meeting him? We'll have to find out.**

 **Oh another thing, I didn't mention it last chapter, as I really wanted to get that one out, but i want to know what you think of Athena and her problem with Poseidon. I think in a lot of stories she gets painted out as a grudge holding bitch, which i get somewhat, but i kind of wanted to show what i thought of the situation. To me it makes sense that a prideful goddess like Athena would hold a grudge over this event that basically showed she wasn't strong enough to protect the people under her care. What are your thoughts on it, i'd really like to know.**

 **With that I have nothing else to say. I hope you like the third chapter. It probably won't be very long. It's more a chapter going through Percy's schooling in a way i thought would work well enough to show the important bits, but not be boring. Either way, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.**

 **And in case you cant tell ASFGY stands for Athena's School for Gifted Youngsters**

 **Oh and disclaimer, I'm not Rick Riordan. I don't own anything, but my original ideas.**

 **Chapter 3: As Years Fly By**

 **[Monday, August 24, 2000]**

 **[Percy POV]**

One week before the school year starts, ASFGY holds audience day, A-day for short. A-day is the day students from every year go and have their audiences with the house-heads. It's also a day where houses recruit student into their intro classes. Intro-classes are basic level classes anyone can takr as an _introduction_ into a houses course work. They're only one semester long and you only get a basic level understanding of what the course goes over.

But really, none of that matters to me at the moment, as _I_ have an audience with _every_ house head. Unbelieveable, I know, but it's true. I'm not one for boasting, but _every_ house head wanted to meet with me, I think I deserve to boast a bit. Although, my mother's been doing enough boasting to her friends for the both of us so maybe not.

As i walked up to the school I was gearing myself up for a long day. Each audience with a house head takes anywhere from ten minutes to fifteen minutes. Even if every house head takes the minimum ten minutes, which is unlikely, that's still a few hours of meetings. And then there's the meeting with the headmistress. I have _no_ idea how long she'll want to speak with me, or what she'll want to speak about for that matter.

I had a rough schedule for the day. It basically told me which classrooms to go to for each house, and in what order I go to them. It was a long list, to say the least. At the end of the list was my meeting with the headmistress. I was _somewhat_ dreading that meeting, not knowing what she wants with me, but at the same time I've wanted to meet Lady Athena almost as much as I've wanted to meet my father. It's an odd mixture of dread and excitement that makes my head spin whenever I think about it.

I said goodbye to Aunt Hestia, who was escorting me to the school, and went through the security check. My first audience was with my head of house. I made my way to the classroom, and was somewhat surprised to recognize it as the classroom the test was held in. I was the only one there and the door was open so I walked in.

The class was just as I remembered it. Rows of desks facing the front of the room. And at the front of the room was a large white board and a larfe desk. Sitting at the desk was none other than Galene. She was writing in a notebook on her desk, seemingly pretty focused. As I approached the desk, my footsteps drew her attention. She looked up and gave me a smile.

"Percy Jackson," she said with a smile.

I returned the smile a bit nervously and said, "Hello, Mrs. Galene."

"Take A seat and we can get to business. This shouldnt take very long."

I sat at the chair in front of her desk and waited to be addressed.

"Do You know what our house name means?" ahe asked.

"I do. Éktaktos is Greek for extraordinary."

"And how do you know that?" she asked.

I contimplated my answer for a few seconds before saying, "I believe you know how I understand it."

"I do, but the question is whether or not you do."

"I do."

"So you know?"

"That I'm half god? Yeah, I've known for a while."

"Might I ask how?"

I took about a minute to think of a plausible answer that wouldnt give away Aunt Hestia or my heritage before saying, "When i was two I liked to crawl into burning fires and play with the hot embers. I realized normal kids couldn't do that. I asked my mother why and she told me my father's a god."

"So you know who I am."

"I do. Which is why I was shocked when I heard your name."

"The first time you've met a goddess?"

"Second. My father apparently convinced one to watch me when I was younger. And if you're wondering I wont tell you who it was. She asked me not to tell."

"Interesting. Do you know who the headmistress is?"

"I do."

"And your father?"

"I-I believe I know who he is, although no ones told me."

"I understand why you wouldn't want to say who he is."

"Y-you do?" my heart stopped in my chest.

"Yes. Your father is my cousin. I'd recognize his scent anywhere."

"H-have you told the headmistress?"

"I have," I could hear my heart beating in my chest.

"And how did she react?"

"Probably not how you'd expect."

"So she's not going to smite me in my audience with her?"

Galene chuckled softly and said, "I have known and worked with Lady Athena for a long time, and just when I thought i understood her you came along. She has been acting… strangely when the subject of you comes up. I will not pretend to understand her completely, but I would hazard a guess that you aren't at great risk of being smitten."

"That's not very comforting."

"Yeah, I guess it's not. Either way, I do have some things to talk about as your head of house…"

-LINE CUT-

 **[Near the end of Audience Day]**

I have spent the last eight hours in meetings. Eight hours of my life, sitting in offices, talking to people about their houses… and I loved every moment of it. Every ten to fifteen minutes I'd be in another meeting with another person I'd only ever read about in books or heard stories about from Aunt Hestia. Literal legends and myths that I never thought id actually get to meet, even if I really really hoped I would.

The rest of my meetings consisted of me fanboying over whatever mythical legend I met next. And being able to freely talk about the mythical realm with other people besides my mother and aunt, at least to some extend, was really freeing. I felt like I was finally in a place I actually belonged. Not to mention getting to talk getting to learn about a ton of different subjects that all sounded positively fascinating. Needless to say, my day was filled with excitement and wonder… until right now, that is.

Standing outside the head mistresses office staring at a large 'Do Not Enter' sign i couldn't help, but feel the slightest bit intimidated. With slight hesitancy I reached up and knocked on the door. When i heard a soft 'Come in' I took a deep breath to center myself and entered the office showing slightly more confidence then I actually felt.

My gaze was immediately focused on the woman standing in the middle of the room. Her long, wavy blonde hair, delicate features, and stunning grey eyes perfectly matched the description Aunt Hestia had given me. I walked forward and stooped a few feet in front of her. I stared at her for a moment before remembering what Aunt Hestia had told me.

 _Athena is a very prideful goddess,_ she had said, _when you meet her you must show the utmost respect. Anything less and she will feel offended._

With Aunt Hestia's words flowing through my mind, I kneeled in front of the headmistress with my head bowed and said, "It is an honor to meet you, Lady Athena."

Silence is all that met me, but i did not dare to raise my head, fearing the worse might happen. It was silent for a few moments longer before Lady Athena said, "R-rise, Perceus."

I nodded my head slightly and rose to my feet. "Thank you, Lady Athena."

The headmistress nodded and with a motion behind her said, "Follow me."

I nodded as I followed her. She led me to a large desk which she went around to sit in the large cushioned seat behind it. I stayed standing as I waited for her to speak.

She studied me for a few moments before saying, "Tell me what you thought of the admittance test."

I considered my answer for a few moments before saying, "The written portion was, for lack of a better term, simple."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well, for one there wasn't a single concept on the test your average fourth year would find difficult, and while your average first year student might find that difficult, I definitely didn't. And then then there's the fact that all the questions were entirely one dimensional. They required little more than memorizing facts, and formulas, lacking any need for actual thought. Which again, is typical for a test meant for six and seven year olds, but I am definitely not typical, Lady Athena."

The headmistress smiled slightly and said, "And the physical tests?"

I smiled and said, "Those were actually a lot of fun."

The headmistress stared at me for a few seconds before saying, "Galene has told me you knew of your heritage without being told by her. Is that true?"

"It is, Lady Athena. I learned of my heritage long ago."

"And how old were you when you first learned of the mystical world?"

"About a week old." Athena's shocked and disbelieving look was somewhat comical, but i kept myself from smiling, somewhat.

"I find that hard to believe," she said, obviously fishing for an answer.

I smiled slightly as I contemplated my answer, something i found myself doing a lot, before saying, "You know of the Blessing of the Immortals." My smile grew slightly at her stunned look.

"You have it?"

"Not entirely, but my mind and body developed quickly when I was an infant. The physical aspects have lessened considerably, but my mind still develops rather quickly, Lady Athena."

"How do you know?"

"I was told, and, sorry, but I cant tell you who told me. They made me promise not to."

"I-I see. That explains an awful lot."

I nodded and she continued with, "Do you know who your father is?"

I stiffened slightly, something your average person wouldn't see, but the goddess of wisdom is more observant then the average person. "I had My suspicions, but they weren't confirmed until my meeting with Galene this morning."

Athena watched me fidget nervously for a few seconds before sighing and saying, "You have nothing to fear, Perseus."

"I-I don't?"

She studied me a few seconds before saying, "I dont believe so." She leaned forward and said, "I have never let any of his children into my school, but you are… different. I can't consciously stunt the growth of such a promising young man as yourself, the will of my station forbids it. That being said, it will take time for me to get use to your presence in my school."

"I understand, Lady Athena."

She studied me for a few moments before saying, "Which houses did you like?"

I smiled and said, "All of them. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to choose."

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **[First Day]**

And as it turns out I wouldn't have to. Athena and I spent the next hour or so discussing my work load. The plan basically boiled down to lots of classes each day, almost twice as many as the average student, and lots of self studying. I learned that the classes themselves wouldn't be very hard, they're only entry level classes, but the sheer number of them would give me quite the workload.

So here I am, the first day. We moved into our dorms yesterday, and I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to meet any of the older students, they were in house meetings all day, while we spent the day touring the massive school. Either way we'd meet them eventually, I'm really just excited to start classes.

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **[The first house-specific class]**

"Can anyone tell me where demigods get their powers from?" Asked Galene from the front of the classroom.

I knew the answer of course, I'd asked Aunt Hestia years ago, but decided to give the the others in the room a moment to think it over before raising my hand. When I saw none of them looked like they'd be trying to answer, I raised my hand.

"Yes, Percy," said Galene.

"No one knows exactly what it is, except maybe the creator, but gods, demigods, and monsters draw on a power we call the roí. Gods have much much more than demigods do, so much so that they're immortal. Demigods can typically store a certain amount of the roí in their stomachs at a time, which is why they feel a tugging in their stomach when they use their power and have a limit to how much power they can use. Monsters have a form of roí that's been corrupted by the pits of Tartarus. It gives them immense strength and power, but also tends to corrupt them in one way or the other."

"Very good, Percy, exactly right. Now, as Percy said, no one knows what the roí actually is. What we do know is how to use it. Now, what I want you four to do is focus within yourself. You should feel something in your stomach. Grab at it a pull as lightly as you can. We'll go in order, first up is Rachel. Please join me in the front of the room."

Rachel walked up and stood in front of Galene. She looked a bit concerned. "Can I actually do this, Mrs. Galene? I'm not a demigod."

"You can, Rachel. The roí within you is what allows you to be clear sighted. I've taught other clear sighted mortals before, and pulling on their roí always had at least some affect."

Rachel nodded and closed her eyes. A few minutes later she opened her eyes, which were now glowing softly, and gasped.

"What do you see?" asked Galene.

"I-I think its the mist. It's beautiful," she said.

"Can you describe it for us?" asked Galene.

"It's like a soft golden fog swirling around everything. It seems to be focused on you pretty heavily, Mrs. Galene."

Galene smiled and said,"Interesting. Now can you try to pull on the mists, make them move."

Rachel closed her eyes again, and developed a highly concentrated look. A moment later she opened her eyes with a smile and said, "They moved! Not a lot, but I could definitely feel myself pulling them towards me."

Galene smiled widely and said, "A mist witch. _Very_ interesting."

"Mist witch?" asked Annabeth.

"Yes. When clear-sighted mortals pull on their roí it can have various affects. Mist watchers can see the mist, mist destroyers can destroy it, mist twisters can twist the mist to their will, and mist cloakers can hide the mist from others who can typically see through it. Rachel here is a mist witch. The rarest of the bunch and the only type that can use all four techniques. Or it would be more correct to stay the only type who can naturally do all four techniques. The other types can, with enough effort and time, learn to use the other techniques."

Rachel beamed at Galene for barely a second before she suddenly looked slightly green and fell to the ground panting heavily. The glow in her eyes disappearing.

Galene knelt down and placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Like Percy said, there is a limit to the amount of roí you can use in one sitting. We'll work on expanding your time later, for now take a seat and rest for the remainder of class." Rachel nodded and stumbled into her chair breathing heavily.

I leaned over and said, "You okay?"

Rachel smiled at me slightly and said, "Yeah, just tired."

I smiled and said, "I'd expect so. The last time I overused my roí I slept for a day straight. I was pissed I'd missed a day of my vacation to Florida."

Rachel smiled and said, "Thank you." I smiled back and we turned to watch the next person, who happened to be Theta.

"Okay Theta, you're going to be a bit different than Rachel. Do you remember the last part of the admissions test you took?" Asked Galene.

Theta nodded and Galene said, "Well that machine, through a bunch of techno babble i dont entirely understand, can tell what powers a demigod has access to and it said you have a connection with farmed goods." Galene held out her hand and in her palm was a small seed. "Find your roí, and then pull on it softly and tell me what you feel."

Theta nodded and closed her eyes. A seconds later she said, "I-i think I can feel the seed. It's pretty faint, but there a soft pulsing coming from your hand, Mrs. Galene."

Galene nodded, and said, "Okay, now pull harder."

Theta nodded and then adopted a highly focused look. A moment later she opened her eyes and stared at the seed with the same concentrated look. A moment later the seed in Galene's hand shook slightly and a small sprout shot out of it and grew until stopping … at the same time Theta fell to the ground panting.

"Demigods run out of roí much quicker using their powers than clearsighteds run out using theirs. But for the loss of efficiency they tend have more diverse, and flashy powers. A good example would be mist shaping. All demigods have the capacity to shape the mist, although some are naturally talented at it, like Hecate's children. But for a demigod to shape the mist it takes an inordinate amount of roí to do. While at the same time mortals who are mist twisters can easily shape the mist, just to a much weaker degree then demigods who do it," explained Galene to the class.

"Do we all have the same amount of roí, then?" asked Annabeth.

"Not naturally. Clearsighteds typically have very small amounts of roí in their bodies when compared to demigods. That being said the amount of roí you have varies from person to person, with some demigods having very little roí and others having a lot of it. The demigod Heracles had near godlike levels of roí, while some demigods have less roí then your average clear sighted, and in very rare cases only slightly more than your average human. For clearsighteds their natural levels are always rather low. For demigods, their natural levels typically correspond to who their godly parents were. Heracles was the son of Zeus, one of the strongest gods, and therefor had a lot of roí. That being said there is a limit to how much roí mortals can have. At some point it becomes impossible to increase your roí stores anymore, we call that the roí peak. All mortals have a peak, which also varies from person to person, which, again, typically corresponds to that demigods godly parent."

I hadn't actually known that. Hmm, you learn something new everyday, I guess.

"Annabeth, you're up," said Galene.

Annabeth nodded and walked to the front of the class.

"Okay, children of Athena typically have less obvious powers than other demigods, because Lady Athena's powers are more mind based then most gods. Which is why Lady Athena's children very rarely discover their activated powers. That being said, there should be some affect to pulling on your roí, so give it a try and we'll see what happens."

Annabeth nodded, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. A few moments later she inhaled sharply and opened her eyes. She stared at Galene with awe in her eyes for a few seconds before turning to her other three spectators, her eyes widening slightly.

"What do you see?" asked Galene.

"Y-you're all glowing," Annabeth said, with a slightly awed tone.

"Hmm, interesting. Very few of Lady Athena's children develop aura reading, even fewer at such a young age. Very interesting, indeed."

"What is it, the glowing I mean?" Annabeth asked curiously.

"Everyone with roí within them, gods, demigods, and monsters alike, emit an aura. Very rarely, Lady Athena's children develop a skill called aura reading. It lets them see peoples auras. With practice you'll learn how to distinguish one person's aura from another's, as well as learn what the different auras mean."

Theta raised her hand and said, "But why would Lady Athena's children develop aura reading? It doesn't really seem connected to her domains."

"That's a very good question. You see, the best information a tactician can have is knowledge of their enemies and allies alike. So being able to read your enemies auras can be very beneficial for a child of Athena."

At that moment Annabeth, like the two girls before her, dropped to her knees panting. And like the time before her she was told to sit and relax until the end of class. And then finally it was my turn. I walked up and stood in front of Galene with a smile on my face.

"Now Percy here, already knows how to pull on his roí, so we are going to have him push on it instead," said Galene, "The principle concept is very similar. Reach inside yourself and find your roí, but instead of pulling on it I want you to push. I'll have you know this concept is normally only taught to kids in their last year here, but that's because that's how long it normally takes to be acquainted with your roí enough for this too work. But I think with some practice you'll be able to get this down."

"But what's the difference between pushing and pulling, what will happen?" I asked.

"Truthfully, I don't really know. I've never taught a child of Poseidon to push on their roí before, so i don't really know what will happen" Galene explained.

I nodded, even though that answer was pretty much useless, then closed my eyes. Finding my roí was simple, I've done it more times than I could count. The raw power I could feel coming from it has always been amazing to me, like standing on the shore of an ocean and staring out into the endless vastness of the sea in all its glory. Pulling it has always been simple, mostly because it always seemed eager to flow, and move, much like the sea.

But pushing on it? That was an entirely different task, and an entirely daunting one at that. Who could stand on the shore of the ocean and actually think they could move it? Who would actually believe the ocean would ever bend to their will? As I stared into the vastness that is my roí I found myself feeling… helpless. My heart began pounding against my chest, my lungs struggled to take in air, I felt myself fall to my knees as my head started swimming and images of pain and failure and weakness filled my head, and then nothing.

So cold, so alone. I don't know what's happening, I don't know where I am. I hear cries and realize they're mine. Everything is shaking. Why is is everything shaking? What is happening? Where am I!? And then… it stops. The room stops shaking, the cold ebbs away, and when I open my eyes I found myself staring at my roí again. A fierce determination filled me, unlike any I'd ever felt before. I vowed, in that moment, that I'd never feel so helpless again. With a scream of determination I pushed with all my might. I could feel the roí fighting against me, it didn't want to bend to my will, but i wouldn't give up. This power is mine, and it will listen to me. I felt myself straining against the roí and just as i thought i couldn't push any longer i felt the roí shift and move, being pushed away from me.

My eyes shot open and I found myself on my knees in the classroom. Galene was kneeled in front of me with a worried look on her face.

"What's happening, Percy, are you okay?" she asked.

"I-I can feel it," I struggled out.

"What do you mean?"

"The oceans. The lakes, the rivers. The water. I can feel it. The ebb and flow. The push and pull. The currents moving through the waters. I can feel the animals swimming, the people, the boats… the gods. I can feel you, Galene, and… I can feel father. There's so much out there, and i can feel it all."

I stared into Galene's eyes for a few seconds before gasping as the amount of roí i pushed ran out. My connection to the oceans ebbed away and I fell to my hands and knees panting.

A few seconds later i looked up at Galene and in a tired voice said, "Well, that was fun."

-LINE CUT-

 **[End of Year 1]**

My year was… difficult, to say the least. Like Lady Athena had said, the classes themselves were simple, but the sheer amount of work I had made finding time to get it all done pretty difficult. And disregarding that, I spent the first few weeks seriously home sick.

Other than the difficulty of it my year was also extremely fun! I loved spending time with my house mates, both in class and out of it, and I loved learning so many new things. Not to mention the leaps and bounds my demigod abilities grew in. Although I hadn't gotten very far with pushing my roí, my ability with pulling it seemed to be growing exponentially, and my roí stores have also grown a great deal as well.

Even so I was seriously ready for summer break by the years end, even if I do have stacks upon stacks of summer work to get through by the end of break. At least I get to see Mom, and Aunt Hestia again. I've seriously missed them since winter break.

-LINE CUT-

 **[Mid-summer break]**

The most surprising thing just happened to me.

A month or so ago my mom released her first book! It was a fantasy/sci-fi novel about an alien race that go through a series of tests at birth that split them up into the grunts and the generals of the world's armies. The main character, James, is placed as a grunt, but secretly has aspirations to be a general.

I read it and it was probably one of the best books I've ever read, hands down. And I might be a little biased, but I'm pretty sure the fact that she almost immediately sold every copy of the book printed and had to print a few hundred-thousand more copies just to deal with the demand for the book probably means others agree with me. Her publishers were ecstatic about it, so ecstatic, in fact, that the owners of the company actually invited her to their house for dinner!

And to top it all off, when we got there I was pleasantly surprised to find Rachel Dare was the daughter of the company owners! Apparently the publishing company was some side project they'd been working on as an extension of their main company.

I spent the entire evening next to Rachel, happy to be able to spend time with her again. I'd missed her and my other two house mates more than I'd realized. Rachel seemed happy to see me as well. We spent some time introducing each each other to our respective parents, and talking a bit with them. Apparently they'd heard a lot about me from Rachel, a comment that made Rachel blush for some reason, girls are weird. After that a woman came in and said dinner was ready and we went and sat at a large table. We were served or meals and I did my best to show the manners both my mother and Aunt Hestia had drilled into my head which seemed to please both my mother and Rachel's.

After dinner Rachel's patents wanted to speak with my mother alone for a bit and asked Rachel to show me around the house. Their house was _HUGE_ and by the time me and Mom were leaving I had apparently seen less them half of it!

So yeah, crazy.

 **-LINE CUT-**

The rest of the summer flew by quickly. I spent weekends with my mother and weekdays with Aunt Hestia. Aunt Hestia had taken to helping me with roí pushing when she came over, as well as teaching me what she could about the numerous classes i took last year and would be taking this year. Along with that I occasionally got to meet up with Rachel and hang out, which was tons of fun.

And other than that, we moved into a different, and much better apartment using the money Mom got and continues to get from her book.

And then, before I knew it I was saying goodbye to my mother and aunt Hestia, and moving into my dorm room for the year. Oh boy.

 **-LINE CUT-**

 **[A/N: So I'm gonna say sorry it took so long for this to come out. I know I said it at the top, but I was dealing with stuff and wasn't able to write. That stuff is** _ **mostly**_ **taken care of, with a few exceptions, so i** _ **should**_ **be able to get into writing again.**

 **That being said itll be two to three weeks before the next upload. I want it be** _ **much**_ **longer than this to make up for this one. Which shouldnt be hard because dun dun dun duh were gonna be in canon events, yay! Yeah, there will be a big time skip because frankly all his years in school will be pretty much the same so i dont want to write it all out.**

 **With that out of the way id like to promote my other stories a bit. I just uploaded the first chapter of a Harry Potter story a little while ago. So far the reaction to it has been pretty positive, so id really appreciate it if you'd take a look if you're into Harry Potter fics. I've also just finished a Naruto fic which I'm going to upload right after this one and id appreciate if you'd take a look at that if you're into Naruto fics. And lastly i have a My Hero Academia fic up. That was my first fic and its not the best, but I like the concept so id appreciate if you'd take a look if you're into MHA fics.**

 **Thanks for reading, id really appreciate it if you'd leave a review with what you thought of the fic. See you next time, bye!]**


	4. Hello, Camp Half-blood

[A/N: Hello, this is Semaj. It's been more than a year since my last upload… so yeah, definitely more than the few weeks i promised at the end of the last chapter. I'm sorry about that, but after the last update I had to deal with high school finals, and then after that I had to deal with shit for college, and then after that I had to deal with actual college. I finished with my first year of college almost a month ago, and now sitting here with nothing else to do because of the fucken rona I decided to pick this back up. Again, I'm sorry about that. So yeah, that's all I have to say, let's get to the fic.]

[Based on the amazing work of Rick Riordan. This is made entirely for the entertainment of myself and others, no money made in the process.

* * *

Chapter 4: Hello, Camp Half-Blood

[Friday, May 12, 2006]

[Percy POV]

The last few years have been… interesting, for lack of a better word. Without question there were difficult times, the material got harder with each passing year, but overall my experiences were positive.

I learned so much. I continued to take every class I could, and was allowed admittance into every house in my third year. I accepted, which allowed me to take the upper-level classes. And I continued to work on my abilities with my housemates. It's been so much fun.

But now it's about to come to an end. Normally you stay until you're eighteen, and graduate with a high school diploma, but I was already a few years ahead when I started and my independent studies over the last few years have only advanced me further allowing me to graduate this year. It's a bit of a bummer, to tell you the truth. Sure, it's exciting that I've been accepted into Harvard, even though I'm so young, and sure it's exciting that they offered me a full ride because of, and I quote, "Academic excellence unlike anything we've seen before," but I'm still a bit sad that I won't be attending school with my friends come August. Sure I'll see Theta and Annabeth at camp Half-Blood during the summers, we all decided we'd go this summer, but I wouldn't get to see Rachel, and that would still be a majority of the year I wouldn't get to see them… So yeah, I'm excited for the start of the next year, but sadly I'm leaving my friends.

On a less somber note, today was gearing up to be pretty exciting. The sixth-years were going on a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and since I was technically a sixth-year the Headmistress allowed me to tag along. So there I was, sitting on a yellow bus with Theta to my left, Annabeth and Rachel in front of us, driving down the road listening to the sound of lightning in the distance. The weather had been pretty strange for a while now, wonder if something's wrong with Lord Zeus.

The bus pulled up to the museum, stopping behind a second bus with the words Yancy Academy printed on its tail end. As we filed off the bus and entered the building to begin our tour, I passingly noted a short old lady in a leather jacket glaring straight at me. Disregarding the old lady, that for some reason seemed to hate me, I turned to our tour guide, at that moment realizing we'd be taking the tour with Yancy Academy.

After touring the Roman gallery, which was absolutely fascinating by the way, we entered the Greek gallery, the part I was really excited about. Our tour guide, a middle-aged man wearing a tweed jacket sitting in a motorized wheelchair, began explaining some ancient Greek funeral art. I was absolutely entranced when I heard some snickers from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at the freckled redheaded girl behind me. I was going to ignore it, but a second later she snickered again and I had enough of her distraction.

"Could you quiet down?"

It came out a bit louder than I intended and everyone stared at me.

"Do you have a comment, Mr…?" the tour guide asked.

"Jackson, Sir, and no, I don't."

"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" he asked while pointing to a picture on the stele he was talking about.

I looked at the carving and raised an eyebrow, "Well, I thought that was your job, but I guess I can give it a shot." There were a few chuckles, especially from my housemates.

"That is Kronos, son of Gaia and Uranus, Lord of time, and the king of the titans, devouring his children. He feared his children would overthrow him like he'd overthrown his own father before him. So when each child was born he'd take them from his wife Rhea and swallow them whole. Rhea was rather upset by this and decided she'd had enough, so when their last son Zeus was born she hid him away on an island and fed her husband Kronos a rock instead. Zeus grew up and tricked his father into drinking a mixture of mustard and wine, forcing Kronos to disgorge his siblings, who being immortal we're living and growing in his stomach undigested. There was a huge war between the gods and the titans that ended in the final battle between Kronos and his three sons, where Zeus and his two brothers defeated Kronos, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains into the darkest pits of Tartarus to remain in a constant limbo between life and death for all of time."

Behind me, the red-haired chick mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," the tour guide said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

There were some chuckles as I contemplated my answer for a second.

"Because it's our roots. Where we came from. You can see the influence of ancient Greece in our everyday lives. Our architecture is modeled after it, our philosophy, our speech and so much more. Our world hasn't left ancient Greece in the past so we shouldn't either. We learn all of this because it's how we respect what once was, and understand what still is."

"Very good, Mr. Jackson. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Kerr, would you lead us back outside?"

Our two classes drifted off. The kids from Yancy acting like doofuses, the kids from my school trying to look graceful, but only succeeding in looking like pompous assholes with sticks up their asses.

My housemates and I were about to follow when the tour guide said, "Mr. Jackson."

I wonder what that could be.

I told my housemates to keep going and turned to the tour guide. "Yes, Sir?"

The man had this intense look on his face-intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. A look I'd gotten a few times in the past by some of my teachers. Odd.

"Do you know the story of Chiron?" the man asked.

"Of course. While Kronos was looking for Zeus he came across the nymph Philyra. Kronos then impregnated the nymph while in the form of a horse, causing her to give birth to the centaur Chiron. Philyra, disgusted by his form, then abandoned Chiron to rot, and he would've if it wasn't for the god Apollo who took him in and taught him. Because he was civilized and highly intelligent he was garnered with much respect. A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be highly revered as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were Theseus, Jason, Perseus, in some stories Heracles, and in one story he was said to have taught Dionysus chants, dances, and the bacchic rites and initiations. Chiron was the antithesis of all things centaur, and for that reason, he was highly respected."

"Very good. Although the tails about Lord Apollo and I are always a bit off. He taught me a great deal, but by no means did he teach me to be civilized. Lord Apollo has always been a bit too immature for niceties."

I was confused for the briefest of seconds before my eyes widened greatly in shock. "No way. You're?

"Chiron."

"No way!" I shouted and walked the few steps forward to shake his hand enthusiastically.

"I can't believe I finally got to meet you! I thought I'd have to wait until this summer. What're you doing here?"

"One of the satyrs detected the presence of a fury in the area near Yancy Academy. I stepped in to make sure any demigods that might be at the school were protected. Now enough about me. I take it you're planning on attending camp this summer?"

"Yeah. I haven't been detected by any monsters yet due to the protections around A.S.G.Y. but better safe than sorry."

"Hmm, that is a responsible plan, Mr. Jackson. And your two friends will be attending as well?"

"Yeah. Annabeth is a daughter of Athena, and Theta's father isn't one of the major gods, but her scent is still pretty strong, so they'd rather not risk a monster happening upon them."

"Yes, I agree."

I nodded at him.

"Your answer to my question was quite insightful Mr. Jackson."

"About Kronos?"

"About real life. And how this applies to it."

"On, thank you, Sir."

"You're welcome. I do think I shall expect only the best from you from now on, Mr. Jackson."

I nodded and Chiron took a long sad look at the stele like he'd been at the girl's funeral, which he might have been.

He told me to go eat lunch.

The classes were gathered on the front steps, so we could watch Fifth Avenue.

Overhead a large, abnormally dark storm was brewing, no one but me and my housemates seemed to notice.

The A.S.G.Y. kids were sitting by themselves with sticks up their asses, while some of the guys from Yancy were pelting pigeons with crackers. The Bobofit girl was trying to pickpocket something from some woman's purse, no one seemed to notice.

My housemates and I were sitting on the edge of the fountain, as far from the others as we could be. Maybe we wouldn't be associated with the assholes and the delinquents.

"What did he need?" Theta asked.

"To ask if I know the story of Chiron."

"And?"

"I told him what I know. But he said his relationship with Apollo was a bit different then the stories say. Apparently, Apollo was too immature to teach him to be civilized."

The three girls looked at me in confusion for a few seconds before their eyes widened in understanding.

"B-but he's in a wheelchair," Rachel said.

"A pretty good way to throw people of his scent, don't you think?"

"What's he doing here, shouldn't he be at camp?" Annabeth asked.

"Something about one of the furies."

We sat in silence for a while as I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so badly to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd send me back. I have to finish my year, after all.

Chiron parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair.

I was about to unwrap my sandwich when the Bobofit girl appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Rachel's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I tried to stay cool. I really did, but in that moment she'd earned my ire. My anger flared and the water behind me reacted. The next thing I knew the girl was in the fountain screaming.

I sighed and turned to Rachel. She'd cleaned herself off and saw my look. She nodded before closing her eyes. A second later all the kids that had been watching developed a glazed look in their eyes. I got the girl out of the fountain, a similar look in her eyes, and dried her off before sending her on her way. A second later Rachel's eyes opened and everyone went back to what they were doing, forgetting what had just happened.

I turned to sit back down and the old lady I'd seen earlier seemingly materialized next to us. She had a triumphant look in her eyes like I'd done something she'd been waiting for.

"Now, honey," she said in a sickly sweet voice, "Would you mind helping me with something?"

My eyes narrowed questioningly, and I said, "Uuh, sure." I was getting an eerie feeling from this lady.

I stood up, noticing my friends intended to follow. I waved them off and told them I'd be back soon.

Then I turned to face the lady, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to follow.

How had she gotten there so fast?

Halfway up the stairs, I glanced back at my friends, who were giving me worried looks. Apparently, they thought the woman was strange as well.

I gestured towards Chiron before looking back up. She'd disappeared again. She was now inside the building at the end of the entrance halls.

Okay, I thought, she needs some help in the gift shop.

But apparently, that wasn't the plan.

I followed her deeper into the building. When I finally caught up we were in the Greek gallery.

Except for us, the room was empty.

The lady stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She made this weird noise in her throat, like growling.

A shit ton of signals went off at that. Even without the growling, this woman would be a bit eerie. Something about the way she looked at the frieze as if she wanted to pulverize it.

"I wasn't sure when I saw you by the entrance, but now I am," she said.

"Excuse me?"

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.

Thunder shook the building. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," the lady said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

She shouldn't know my name.

"Well?" she demanded.

I stayed silent, waiting.

"Time's up!" she hissed.

In the next moment, her eyes glowed red, her fingers grew into talons, and her leather jacket turned into large leathery wings on her back. Not an old lady. Definitely not.

"Percy!" a voice shouted behind me. I was more focused on the fury lunging at me.

I dodged to the left, barely managing to slip past. I reached into my pocket and grabbed the pen Aunt Hestia had given me when I was six. She said to use it in emergencies. This probably qualified.

I pulled the pen out and uncapped it. In the next instant what was once a normal pen was now a sword. I didn't have time to marvel as in the next moment the fury lunged with an enraged look on her face.

"Die!"

I side stepped and slashed reflexively. Hiss!

In an instant, the furry was vaporized. Golden dust in the wind, the smell of sulfur in the air.

My friends and Chiron appeared.

I told them I was fine.

"What should I do?" I asked Chiron.

He seemed to know what I meant.

"I believe you should be fine until the summer begins. The fury was already in the area, it's most likely she just happened upon you."

I wasn't so sure, she knew my name after all, but I kept that to myself. The protections around A.S.G.Y. we're adequate enough to keep me safe until summer. And it freaked me out a bit too much to voice my concerns.

* * *

The strange weather continued, or perhaps worsened would be a better term. Something was definitely wrong with Lord Zeus.

The few short weeks until the end of term flew by quickly. Before I knew it it was finals week.

I didn't bother to study, I remembered everything said to me, the Blessing of Immortals made sure of that.

I found myself noticing all the things I'd miss, come the start of next year. My housemates, obviously. The teachers, Galene specifically. Even my annual chat with Headmistress Athena, they'd gotten much less strenuous over the years. I would really miss this place.

At least I'd be going to camp this year, I'd been excited to attend for as long as I can remember. And Annabeth and Theta would be coming home with me so my mother could drive us to camp, that was kind of exciting.

On the last day of term, I stuffed my clothes into my bag in silence. I was the only male half-blood in my year, both sixth and twelfth years, so I was used to being alone.

When the dreaded moment came Annabeth, Theta, and I struggled out a goodbye to Rachel and walked to the closest subway station. The fastest way to get to my home.

We made small talk, but it was stifled by the absence of Rachel, who lightened up a conversation with her mere presence.

We eventually got to our stop and exited the subway. As we left the station I noticed three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs knitting a giant pair of socks. Staring directly at me.

The lady sitting in the middle took out a large pair of silver-gold scissors.

I grabbed my housemate's hands, hurrying to get away. This could not be happening.

I kept pushing through, to the slight protest of my friends, but I could still feel their eyes on me. I could still hear the snip of the scissors across the heavy traffic...

* * *

It was a short walk from the station to our apartment. I led my friends up the stairs into the apartment.

"I'm home!" I shouted into the house as we walked in.

My friends were looking around at everything. It was the first time they'd been to my house or met my mother for that matter. Eventually, we passed a closed door with the word 'study' on it.

"I guess she's busy. Come on I'll show you around until she's done."

It was a pretty short tour. Our apartment is pretty big for two people, but altogether it's not gigantic.

"I didn't know you were so wealthy," Annabeth said as we sat on the couch with sodas in hand, the television on.

"We weren't, not until a few years ago at least. My mother's first book did fairly well and we've been able to afford a more lavish lifestyle ever since."

"Oh, I didn't know your mother was an author. What has she written, maybe I've heard of it?" Theta asked.

"It's called Aspirations." Queue the shocked looks.

"No way!" my friends shouted in unison.

I smiled as they went into a diatribe about my mother's series being their favorites and how they couldn't believe they'd actually get to meet her. I found myself wondering how I hadn't told them about my mother's work in the past, and came to the conclusion I'd been focused on other things.

"Well I'm happy to meet you two as well," a voice said behind us.

I turned around and smiled before jumping over the couch and embracing my mother.

"I missed you," I said.

"I missed you as well, Sweety. Now, why don't you introduce me to your friends."

I nodded and stepped back.

"Mom, these are my friends Annabeth and Theta. Friends, this is my mom, Sally Jackson."

It was silent for a few seconds before my friends surged forward and surrounded her with smiles on their faces.

"It's so nice to meet you, Miss Jackson," Annabeth said.

"Yeah, I've read your books at least a thousand times, they are so amazing," Theta this time.

"Well that means a lot to me, I'm happy my books make people happy," my mother smiled at the two of them.

"Now, I have a surprise for you three," my mother said, "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?!"

"Yep, three nights, same cabin. I figured it'd be nice to spend some time with you and your friends before I take you to camp."

I love my mom.

* * *

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half-sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold for the average person to swim in.

I loved the place.

We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my father.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other blue candies she'd bought at the candy shop near her work.

I guess I should explain the blue food.

A few years ago, her publicist said blue food didn't exist. She then decided to do her utmost best to get blue into everything we ate. Straight up rebel. I knew I got it from somewhere.

When it got dark, we built a fire and roasted marshmallows. We told stories. About school, our families. Life. I eventually geared up the courage to ask about my father.

She doesn't talk about him much, it makes her sad, so I don't often ask. But something about today, being here, made me want to.

"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

She grabbed a piece of candy from her bag, "I hope you get to meet him one day. He'd be so proud of you."

I smiled.

That night I had a dream, big surprise.

I was on the beach watching a beautiful horse and a graceful eagle fight each other in the middle of a raging storm. The symbolism wasn't lost on me. I watched as the eagle, which represented Zeus, swooped down and slashed the horse, which represented my father. The horse reared back and kicked at the eagle. A loud booming voice goaded them on in the background. Then, just as the eagle swooped down to kill the horse I awoke with a start.

It was storming outside, thunder had awoken me. I got up and walked through the cabin, the girls and my mother awoken by another strike of lightning.

It was dark, but the occasional bolt of lightning lit up the cabin.

*knock-knock-knock*

A knock at the door drew our attention to the front of the cabin. I approached and opened the door to see a satyr being soaked in the torrential downpour.

"Searching all night," the satyr panted out, "Chiron sent me. It's right behind me!"

"Shit." I turned to my friends and family with a serious look on my face. "In the car, now!" I shouted as I ran out the door. I heard my friends and mother following behind me. A slight pull of my roí kept us dry, and dried the ground we walked on, don't want someone falling to slow us down.

We clambered into the car and took off down the road. I pulled my roí enough to keep the ground the car drove on dry, increasing traction, and pulled enough to create a sensory field around the car.

I turned to the satyr, "What's following us?"

"I-I don't know, but it's big."

Great. Big describes ninety percent of all monsters.

A loud bellow came from behind us. I looked through the back window, extending my sensory field far enough to feel where the monster was. Bipedal, ax on its back, muscular… horns. Well, shit I could think of a few bull monsters, but only one bipedal.

"Shit, it's Pasiphae's son."

"The mino- wait how do you know-"

"That doesn't matt-" I started to cut off the satyr but at that moment a second bellow and the feeling of something flying through my sensory field pulled my attention away. I didn't know what it was, but it was heading for the car. I pulled my roí a bit more. The rain around and on the object suddenly came to life pooling around the thrown object and stopping its momentum. It fell to the ground far behind us.

A moment later I could feel the static electricity building in the clouds above us. And right before a burst of lightning began its descent I gathered the rain from around us and created a thick shield of water above our car, solidifying it as much as possible. Less than a second later the lightning struck the barrier, threatening to break through, but failing.

The barrier dissolved, we continued on our way. We stopped at the side of the road.

"Everyone out!" I shouted. I turned to my mother, "Drive away as fast as is safe. We'll be fine."

She nodded and I turned to exit the car.

"Percy," her voice halted my movements, "I love you."

I smiled and said, "Love you too," as I climbed out of the car.

I watched my mother drive off for a second before turning to my friends and the satyr and beckoning them to continue up the hill.

We ran as fast as we were able. It was a long run, but we had an ample head start and had been training for a long time. Just as we crossed the barrier to camp a thought came to mind. The Minotaur can't be left lurking around the entrance to camp. Entering demigods would be in danger.

I left the camp boundaries, putting up a quick wall of water stopping the others from interfering, don't want to risk them getting hurt, after all. They banged on the wall, but I paid them no mind.

I turned to watch the minotaur. He was at the base of the hill smelling the air. Soon he bellowed and turned towards me and began running up the hill. I walked forward with forced calmness, appraising the minotaur.

I knew how to beat him, I'd come up with a plan to destroy most famous monsters a few months ago as a precaution. Now it was just a matter of actually doing it. Luckily the rain would be a big help.

The minotaur ran forward and at the last moment, I pushed on my roí. My senses enhanced, my strength and powers increased. I stepped towards the charging bull and punched. The water around me condensed heavily around my fist. At the last moment, the water exploded outwards throwing the monster backward. I exhaled releasing the pushed roí, that state is straining on my body.

The minotaur roared as it got to its feet, and bellowed in even greater rage. I smiled, this was actually kind of fun, you don't often get to go all out when you're sparring with your comrades.

I raised my hand towards the minotaur. The water around the beast lifted up and began wrapping around the minotaur. It yelled in rage and struggled against the tendrils of water, but it's hand slipped right through its liquid adversary. The water held the beast in place as I walked forward stopping a few feet in front of the bound monster.

I took a deep breath and focused on my roí, pushing on it softly. My eyes began to glow, the ground began to shake. The rain and water were repelled. I looked into the monster's eyes, eyes filled with rage, and with a single step the ground shook violently and the earth in front of me cracked open, a giant rift splitting the ground. The minotaur rage as the ground disappeared from under him and he fell into the deep rift.

I took one more step forward and the ground shook violently once more, closing around the beast, destroying it. I released the breath I was holding, along with the roí I had pushed and the water protecting my friends. The earth sprouted up in front of me, and a horn popped out of the ground, my spoils of war. I bent down and picked it up before turning to my friends, a smile lighting my face. "That was fun!"

After that we walked down the hill and Grover, the satyr, led us to a large farmhouse, aptly named the Big House. We went inside to find Chiron awaiting us. After a short explanation about what happened, he told us we could sleep in the Big House, but we'd be moved into cabins tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning I was awoken by my natural clock at exactly 6 o'clock like I'd been trained to do at A.S.G.Y. Annabeth and Theta awakening at the same time.

I smiled at the two of them and started packing up the sleeping bag I'd been given, my friends doing the same. When we finished we put the three bags in a pile and sat on the ground. We'd wait for someone to come to get us.

About an hour later the door opened and Grover walked in.

"Oh, you're awake," he said, "Come on, Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath. We were on the north shore of Long Island, on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and some of them were on Pegasus'.

At the end of the porch, two men sat across from either at a card table.

The man facing us was short and pudgy. He had a large belly, black, almost purple, hair, and he seemed to be drunk if the red nose and watery, bloodshot eyes were any indication.

As we got closer my eyes widened in recognition. I'd never met him, but Aunt Hestia had described him to me.

I got down on one knee, the way Aunt Hestia and Galene had taught me to address the more proud gods, and said, "It is an honor to meet you, Lord Dionysus."

I heard my two friends inhale sharply in surprise before they too got down on one knee.

"Would you look at that, the newbies actually know how to show some respect," the wine god said, amusement lacing his voice.

"Yes, it would appear so. Now if you wouldn't mind, I think they're waiting for your permission to rise, Mr. D," Chiron said from his spot across from Dionysus.

"Oh, fine then. You may rise."

I nodded as we stood up, and stood quietly, waiting to be addressed.

Chiron gave Dionysus a look which made the pudgy god sigh.

"Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Of course not, my Lord," I said with as much respect as possible, I'd rather he'd not dislike me for some random imagined slight.

He smiled slightly and said, "I think I like you kid. What's your name?"

"Perseus Jackson, my Lord, but most call me Percy. And these are my friends Annabeth Chase and Theta Atlan."

"It is an honor to meet you, Lord Dionysus," Theta and Annabeth said together with a slight bow.

"Well, why don't you sit down Percy, we're playing pinochle. You do know how to play, right?"

"Of course, it is one of the greatest games created by humans, I believe." Was I being a suck-up? Maybe. But I would really rather be in his good graces then not.

I sat down to Dionysus's right as he watched me appraisingly.

"You playing Grover?" he asked the satyr, who at that moment I realized was shaking slightly.

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the last seat.

My two friends stood behind me for a moment before I motioned for them to sit between me and Chiron, which they did.

Dionysus dealt the cards, Grover flinched as everyone landed in his pile.

"Tell me, Percy, how much do you know of Camp Half-Blood?" Chiron asked.

"A lot actually. Galene, our head of house at A.S.G.Y. taught us about the camp. I was not aware, however, that Lord Dionysus would be here."

"Yes, that is a relatively new development. He went after a wood nymph that his father said was off-limits."

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for demigods. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."

I nodded, preferring not to take a side in matters such as this.

"Either way, Mr. D is here as our camp director and shall be for a good deal of time."

"On that note, I think I win," Dionysus said.

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."

"You might want to check again, Chiron," I said as I laid down my hand.

Chiron looked at my hand in surprise and I held back a laugh. Dionysus did no such thing.

"Oh god, you should see your face!" he laughed boisterously, "beaten by a twelve-year-old!"

I smiled at Dionysus and nodded.

The camp director sighed with a small smile on his face before standing up, "I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your performance on this assignment."

Grover nodded and followed Dionysus away. Right before they turned the corner Dionysus looked over his shoulder and said, "It was nice meeting ya, kid. See ya around."

"Thank you, Lord Dionysus. The pleasure was mine."

He smiled and walked away.

"What's that about?" I asked.

"Most of the campers show little respect to Mr. D. I suppose he's taken a liking to you for doing what others don't. As for Grover, he wishes to pursue his dream, but must have permission from the council of cloven elders before he can do so."

I nodded. Aunt Hestia had taught me a bit about the council, enough to know the basics.

"For now, we should get you three into a cabin. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s' mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

With that he stood up out of his magical wheelchair, displaying his large horse body. We were a little shocked at the sudden presence of a large horse ass but knew Chiron was a centaur so not overly so.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, let's meet the other campers."

* * *

After getting over the sudden shock of horse ass in our faces, we followed Chiron as he showed us around the camp, letting us see things we'd only heard of in the past.

Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Dionysus had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Dionysus was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

As we got closer I realized how huge the forest actually was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. I was especially interested in that.

"And there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

Finally, he showed us the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were, without doubt, the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. I smiled at her and waved. She waved back with a smile on her face.

My friends and Chiron didn't seem to notice.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashells and coral as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk.

Despite the lonely bareness of the cabin I felt drawn to it. But I wouldn't get to sleep in there for a little longer, I was feigning ignorance of my heritage until my father thought the moment was right and publicly claimed me.

"Come along, Percy."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red, a real nasty paint job as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. Note to self, 'Be wary of the Ares kids.'

Eventually, we approached what appeared to resemble a regular old summer cabin, emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the paint was peeling. Over the threshold was a caduceus. 'Hermes cabin,' I thought.

Sitting on the front steps was a young man, nineteen maybe with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unusual about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This young man will get you three situated. I'll leave these three in your care, I have a masters archery class in a few minutes."

The man nodded as Chiron trotted off. He turned to us and said, "Well first things first, introductions are in order. I'm Luke, the counselor for cabin eleven and the son of Hermes."

"Well, I'm Percy and this is Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and Theta, daughter of Triptolemus, the god of farming and first lieutenant of the goddess Demeter."

"Okay then, two determined and one non. Better than most groups I guess. Well, I can introduce Annabeth here to the counselor for Athena's cabin, and Theta here to the counselor of Demeter's cabin, they should take you in. As for you, Percy, you'll be staying in my cabin until you're determined," Luke explained.

"Sounds great."

He led us to the cabin with grass on its roof and introduced Theta to an older looking girl, and then introduced Annabeth to the councilor for cabin six and then he and I walked alone into cabin eleven. It was filled with kids, more kids than beds, actually, and a majority of them were sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor.

Luke stepped up and stood next to me. "Percy, meet Cabin Eleven," he said loudly over the chatter drawing most people's attention.

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

"Undetermined."

Everybody groaned.

"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

I looked at the tiny section of the floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. We'd rushed out of the cabin too quickly to grab anything of importance. Just the Minotaur's horn and I wouldn't trust the children of the god of thieves that much.

I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

"How long will I be here?" I asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laughed.

"Come on, Perce, follow me," Luke said.

I stood up and followed Luke out the doors without question.

We walked through the courtyard making small talk. Nothing serious, I could tell Luke didn't want me getting stuck in the cramped cabin, which I appreciated more than I showed, I dislike cramped spaces.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

I looked over to see the large daughter of Ares I'd seen earlier. She had three other girls behind her, all big and mean-looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Luke said, "Unless you're here for a friendly hello, I'll kindly advise you to fuck off."

The girl, Clarisse, growled. "Fuck you, Lucy." She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"

I stepped forward past Luke and said, "I'm Percy. I take it you're a daughter of Lord Ares?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"Of course not," I said with a smile, "I've met children of Lord Ares in the past. Not the sharpest tools in the shed, and definitely a bit hot headed, but completely loyal friends."

Clarisse then proceeded to prove the first two points by apparently only being able to hear the first two points and developing a rather heated look on her face.

She growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"It's Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Luke tried to say.

"Stay out of it, Lucy."

"Yes, Luke, I can handle myself," I said and handed him my Minotaur horn.

That seemed to aggravate Clarisse even more. She lunged and tried to grab me around the neck.

I sighed as I stepped past her grabbing arm, pulling enough roí to increase the speed of my movements. I then pushed my roí and could sense the movement of water deep under my feet. Most likely an underground stream of some kind. I pulled the water towards me with enough force to create a geyser of water in front of me… directly where Clarisse and her three friends were standing. They flew back a few feet soaked, and shocked from the sudden impact.

The geyser petered out and the four girls stared at me in shock before standing up, angered and came after me, presumably for pay back, only for another geyser of water to spring up knocking them over again. The four girls laid sprawled in the mud, and other campers had started gathering around to gawk at the odd scene.

Clarisse gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

I raised an eyebrow at her and said, "You are welcome to try, daughter of Ares, but I will defend myself, and next time I will resort to measures worse than splashing you with water. I hope you bring more of a challenge."

She got to her feet huffed and walked away. Odd, I thought she'd attack me, but I guess she realized I would just keep blowing her away with geysers. Or perhaps she took my words seriously and went to get something to kill me with. Eh, guess we'll find out later.

The surrounding area was soaked with water, except for a circle of dry earth surrounding me. I turned to Luke, who while soaked was otherwise unaffected, and took my horn back, noticing a curious look on his face.

"How did you…" Luke started before trailing off not knowing what to say.

"Haven't the foggiest," I said with a smirk, obviously hinting that I definitely did have the foggiest.

Luke stared at me intently for a few moments before saying, "I think... I think I want you on my team for capture the flag."

* * *

Word of the incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about magic geysers. Or maybe they were just staring at Luke, who was still soaked from head to toe.

He showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got to go, can't leave my siblings along for long," Luke said. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow the rest of the cabin to the mess hall."

Luke turned and started walking away. Before he got too far away I shouted, "Oh, sorry about drenching you earlier!"

He turned his head slightly and shouted over his shoulder, "No problem man," with a quick wave.

I smiled and turned to the lake, happy to finally be among more of my own kind.

I wasn't expecting to see naiads looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.

I smiled and waved back before turning and walking back towards cabin eleven. I didn't want to encourage them too much, Naiads are terrible flirts.

On my way back I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I knew the old laws prevented the gods from having much contact with their children, but seriously gods should behave better. It couldn't be difficult to claim their children, hell the image they send is a basic manipulation of the mist that even I could do, and I know cause I'd seen it when Annabeth and Theta were claimed when I was younger.

I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby, and my stomach growled, so I hurried back to the cabin.

Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my Minotaur horn.

Luke came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.

"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part, but given his parentage he probably wasn't.

I said, "Thanks."

"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall.

"One helluva first, huh?" he asked.

"Eh, could've been worse. At least I knew about the gods. I can't imagine what it's like for those who don't even believe in them when they get here."

"Yeah," he said. "That's how most of us started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easy going guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything. But I guess not everyone are as understanding of the old laws as I am.

"So you're a son of Hermes," I asked, mostly trying to stem the silence.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The god of trade, thieves, and travelers."

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

I figured Luke didn't mean to imply I was a nobody. He must have a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.

"Once."

I waited, for a moment, thinking he'd tell me more if he wanted. He apparently didn't.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

I liked Luke, and was glad he was the one welcoming me to the camp. I knew most older guys like him-even most camp counselors- wouldn't care about some little middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries.

"Hey, how do you think my friends are doing?"

Luke folded his knife. "Your friends are in good hands. Malcolm and Miranda are the head counselors for the Athena and Demeter cabins respectively. I've worked with them both before, and while Malcolm can be a bit cold when we're strategising, they're both good people. Now, come on, it's dinner time."

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. I recognized it as a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before. Perk of being my father's son, I guess.

"Eleven, fall in!" Luke yelled.

The cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so I was last, of course. Campers came from the other cabins as well, except for the empty cabins at the end and cabin eight which had started glowing silver as the sun went down.

We marched up the field to the dining pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the fields, along with wood nymphs from the woods and the naiads from the lake.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.

I saw the satyr, Grover, from earlier sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey blond hair.

Theta sat at table four with a group of kids, many of them covered in dirt. I noticed most of them had varying shades of green eyes.

I waved at them and they waved back. They seemed to be getting along with the fellow campers, which made me happy.

Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent.

He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want-nonalcoholic, of course."

I smiled and said, "Cherry Coke."

The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.

Then I had an idea.

"Blue Cherry Coke."

The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.

I took a cautious sip. Perfect.

I drank a toast to my mother, Galene, and all the other teachers at A.S.G.Y. I probably wouldn't see anytime soon.

"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.

I loaded my plate and then got up and followed everyone to the fire, Luke walking in front of me. We'd sent burnt offerings to the gods at school.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

I was next. I walked up the fire and quietly said, "Father," and scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag. It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I'd always wondered how that worked.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a few new campers today. Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Theta Atlan."

There was a smattering of clapping from table's four and six, and some quiet murmuring about how Mr.D got our names correct.

"That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a singalong. I sat next to Theta and Annabeth and we sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and I said goodbye to my friends as we made our ways back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.

My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, about the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.

When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.

I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.

* * *

 **[A/N: This was a fun chapter to write. It was also kind of difficult in a few spots, especially Percy's confrontation with Clarisse. I at first had it written where Percy talked about his respect for Lord Ares, and managed to get the four girls to like him a bit, but it just felt off, and didn't seem very... good I guess. I then rewrote it like twenty times with various changes until I finally settled on how it is now. I still don't really like it much.**

 **Other than that, I hoped you liked the chapter. Leave a review if you'd like, a follow as well. I have other fics on my account, a Harry Potter one, a Naruto one, and a My Hero Academia one. I haven't updated any of them recently and probably wont any time soon, sadly. But they're there if you'd like to take a look.**

 **I don't know how long until the next chapter will be released. It takes a while to write chapters this long, so if'd you'd like I could make them a bit shorter, but release them faster? Leave a review about it I guess.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading. Until next time.]**


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